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Andy Stanley - The Fundamental List Part 7 Fundamental 7 · Andy Stanley Sermons

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  So for the first half of my life I was often introduced as this is
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  doctor Charles Stanley's son, and honestly, that never bothered me. There were
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  a lot of perks to being his son. And for those of you who
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  don't know, my dad was a famous pastor on television on radio for many,
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  many, many years. So of course there are a lot of perks,
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  and there were some awkward moments that the biggest perk was this. I
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  found out later. Sandra told me that one of the reasons she went out
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  with me for the first time was if it didn't work out, it didn't
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  matter because she'd be able to tell her grandmother that she went out with doctor
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  Charles Stanley's son. So there was that. So thank you Dad. Okay,
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  So that was thirty something years ago. In terms of awkward moments,
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  the consistent awkward moments what I call the double handshake. And it wasn't like
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  a double handshet like this. It went more like this. I'd be with
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  a friend they introduced me to one of their friends, Hey, this is
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  my friend Andy's Andy Stanley and they'd be like, oh, it's nice to
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  meet you, and shake hands because that's what you do and then they would
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  say he's doctor Charles Stanley's son, and before they could catch themself, here
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  came the second hand shake, Like, oh, like it was kind of
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  nice to meet you, now it's like really nice to meet you. You
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  know, that first handshake was for politeness, but the second handshake was for
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  association, right because of a shared name, and that shared name of that
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  association came prepackaged with an element of accountability, right because I was accountable for
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  protecting my famous dad's reputation, which just so you know, was not a
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  burden he ever placed on me or my sister. In fact, he'd been
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  over backwards not to put that burden on us, which I think made both
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  of us feel even more responsible for protecting his reputation in terms of our public
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  behavior. Right. So, I was aware that he had a reputation,
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  and that part of my responsibility, even as a teenager, was to help
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  protect that and to represent him well everywhere I went, right because my behavior
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  was a reflection on him. And the reason is is because he was a
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  way bigger deal than me. Now later in life, every once in a
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  while, the situation would be reversed and I'd be having breakfast with him somewhere,
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  or lunch or dinner with him, and somebody would see me and walk
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  up and introduce himself to me. Hey, I'm so and so Andy,
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  it's nice to meet you. It's nice to meet you. And I'd always
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  say, this is my dad, Charles Stanley, and oftentimes they would not
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  oftentimes, but sometimes they would kind of be like, oh, it's your
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  Dad's nice to meet you. Then they would walk off and didn't know who
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  he was, and I would say, Dad, you better behave because I
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  have a reputation to maintain. Hey. Today, we're in part seven of
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  our series The Fundamental List, Recovering the Essentials of our Faith. Recovering the
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  Essentials of our faith, where we're answering the question what must a person believe?
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  What must a person believe in order to be a faithful follower of Jesus?
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  Not what must a person do? We talk about that all the time,
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  and doing is important because doing is what actually makes the difference. But
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  stepping back from that a little bit, what must a person believe in order
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  to be a faithful follower of And this is important because if it's not fundamental,
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  if it's not essential, we're not so sure that it should be something
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  we are involved in. It's an important question too, because there are so
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  many different Christian traditions. There are so many different versions of Christianity. And
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  as you know, each one of these versions of Christianity, whether it's a
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  single church or a network of churches, or denomination of churches, or the
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  Catholic Church or the Episcopals specifically, every single faith tradition or faith expression of
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  Christianity comes with its own terms and conditions, its own traditions, its own
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  expectations. Sometimes they use a different Bible, they baptize differently, we do
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  communion different There's different interpretations of certain scriptures in different faith traditions. Certain scriptures
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  are elevated over others. And really the only thing that we kind of all
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  have in common, and I'm including us, is that we think that we're
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  right and everybody else isn't quite as right. Right or all the other traditions,
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  they're just half writer. They're not writer, they're unin or they're misinformed,
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  and so it makes it very confusing even for Christians, but it certainly
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  makes it confusing for people outside our faith tradition. And they're like, even
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  even you guys, can't agree on what's most important and on what this thing
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  is supposed to look like and act like, and then to make it even
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  more complicated. In every generation, We've talked about this throughout the series,
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  In every generation beginning in the second century, I mean, this is all
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  the way back. In every generation, new and novel ideas are blended into
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  or woven into certain streams of Christianity. New and novel and sometimes toxic and
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  sometimes disruptive and sometimes harmful things are woven into certain traditions of Christianity, and
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  every once in a while, in fact, not even every once in a
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  while. Oftentimes these new and novel and sometimes toxic ideas are elevated to the
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  point of being considered dogma or doctrine. They're fundamentals, they're essential to the
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  point of if you reject some of these new and novels ideas, if you
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  reject some of these things that came along way after the time of Jesus,
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  you're not even considered a Christian, you're not a true Christian. You're out.
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  But here's the thing, and here's why we're doing this series. When
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  non essentials, when non essentials begin to characterize or define a church, or
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  a church brand or denomination, or any expression of Christianity. When non essentials
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  characterize and define a church brand, honest, thoughtful people eventually step away from
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  that church, from that denomination, from that faith expression. They step away
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  not because they quit believing in God, and they step away not because they
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  quit honoring the Bible. They step away not because they don't believe what they've
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  always believed about Jesus. They step away because something about their faith, tradition,
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  their expression of faith, the Christian faith, just doesn't seem right.
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  And in some cases they begin to deconstruct, deconstruct their faith, which basically
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  means they step out of organized religion to kind of so out the essentials from
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  the non essentials, to figure out what's actually fundamental, what's actually foundational,
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  what truly represents first century Christianity. And this may be your story. You
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  may have just hit pause on all things organized religion. And again, you
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  still have faith, and you still have faith in God, the God that
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  you grew up with. You still believe that Jesus is who Jesus claimed to
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  be. But there's your faith tradition with it, was your church, a
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  denomination, whatever it might be. You just began to sense that something was
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  just a little bit off. That the tone and the posture and the approach
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  that they took to the Christian faith just it began to feel to you anyway
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  on christ like as if the leaders or the people that kind of led you
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  and that tradition or or that church they knew the Bible, but you wondered
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  sometime if they knew Jesus. So this is a big deal. So we're
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  asking the question as honest as we can. What is fundamental? What's essential?
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  What's essential versus cultural, familiar, comfortable, fashionable, but peripheral.
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  And the reason, one of the main reasons this is a big deal is
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  because practically speaking, non essentials, non essentials eventually become obstacles. The non
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  essentials that get woven into certain streams of Christianity, they eventually, for somebody,
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  they become obstacles for faith. Christianity becomes untenable, unlivable for some people.
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  It's no longer good news, it becomes a problem. Now, so
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  far, we've talked about six of these essentials. I'm going to run through
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  them real quick. For those of you who are just joining us, I
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  would encourage you to go back on your local church website or on my YouTube
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  channel and catch up with the series. These all build but real quickly.
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  Here's the fundamentals we've discovered so far. Number one, Jesus is God's Son
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  and our King. You have to believe this to be a faithful follower of
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  Jesus, because this is what Jesus claimed about himself. Number two, Jesus
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  came to illustrate and demonstrate what God is like. You have to believe in
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  order to be a follower of Jesus because this is what Jesus said he came
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  to do. This was part of his mission on planet Earth. Number three,
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  Jesus had a specific definition of sin Jesus and if you're going to be
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  a Jesus follower, then you have to adopt his view of all things right
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  Jesus to find sin is anything that harms you or others. And then number
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  four, Jesus promised justice in the end, which means if you're a Jesus
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  follower, you have to believe there's going to be justice at the end of
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  the age and that he invites us to trust him in the meantime. And
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  then number five, and this is where I think most people thought we would
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  begin, but we've done this sort of chronologically as you follow Jesus through the
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  gospels. Number five, Jesus died for your sin to reconcile you to God.
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  That Jesus came to demonstrate what God was like, and then Jesus came
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  to die for our sin to reconcile us to our heavenly Father. The number
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  six, we talked about the church, that the church is God's agent of
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  transformation personally, culturally, and globally. That Jesus left the church behind to
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  represent him. And even though you go to an imperfect church because it's full
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  of imperfect people like me and like you, in spite of that, the
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  church is the epicenter of God's activity on planet Earth. It's a big,
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  big deal. And if you're going to be a follower of Jesus in some
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  ways, you have to believe that that is what Jesus intended his local church
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  and the church in the world to be. So today number seven of eight
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  fundamentals, we're going to begin by looking at because this is the end of
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  jesus of ministry on Earth. We're going to begin by looking at Jesus' final
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  command, his farewell command. In some ways, this was his farewell address,
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  and in some ways it explains why we're even here. And for those
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  of you who grew up in church, it's very familiar, which means it's
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  essential because it's his farewell command. It's essential if we're going to follow him,
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  and it must be taken seriously because it's from him. And here's what
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  we're going to dig down on a little bit today. It has to be
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  taken personally. So here we go. Following the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to
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  his apostles and to the women who had been following him and others, and
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  he told them he wanted to meet with them in Galilee. So he appears
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  to them in Jerusalem. Outside of Jerusalem, in Judea. He says,
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  I want you to spend a couple of days, go all the way back
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  to Galilee, where most of his followers originated from. He said, I'm
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  going to meet you in Galilee. It was safer in Galilee. And also
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  Matthew was in Galilee and he documented what happened next. And here's what he
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  said happened. He said, the eleven disciples, because Judas is missing.
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  You know that story. The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain
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  where Jesus told them to go, and when they saw him. When they
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  saw him, they asked him all those questions they've been dying to ask him
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  all along. Yes, that's not in the text. No, I made
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  that up. But this is my whole life. I have heard this,
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  and you thought this. I think we've all thought this. When I get
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  to I'm gonna ask him, right, It's like when I get to Heaven,
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  It's like, Jesus, you need to sit down. I got a
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  list of questions that I brought with me, all those unexplainable things, all
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  those things that didn't make any sense, all that heartache and pain, and
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  why did you do this? And why didn't you do that? But when
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  we get to Heaven and however that works, You're not going to ask any
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  questions. And I'm not going to ask The only question we should ask is
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  why am I here? That's the appropriate question, right. What comes next?
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  We read right by, but we shouldn't, because what comes next takes
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  us back to the very beginning. What comes next takes us back to the
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  first fundamental what Jesus claimed about himself. Now, don't answer out loud,
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  don't whisper, and don't raise your hand, do you know, don't say
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  it out loud. Do you know what they did next? They did what
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  everybody will eventually do when they saw him, they worshiped him. Now Jewish
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  men and women worshiping a human being as if that human being is a god
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  or is God, this was so unlikely, this was so offensive. In
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  fact, worshiping a human being as if that human being is a god was
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  offensive to Roman and Greek. Certainly Hebrew sensibilities. And according to Matthew,
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  according to the people who were there, Jesus did not resist. But and
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  I love this. I love how honest Matthew is. The text says Matthew
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  tells us. But I gotta be honest. Some doubted, And I think
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  the people with Matthew, when they realized what he was going to write and
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  what he was going to let the world know about, they were like,
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  Matthew, do you have to include that that makes us look bad, to
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  which Matthew would have said, guys, we've looked bad the entire time.
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  Every twist in turn, we asked dumb questions and we responded incorrectly, And
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  don't you remember when they arrested our rabbi. Do you remember what we did?
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  Yeah, we all abandoned them. Yeah. I don't think we need
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  to worry about looking bad. We already look bad. But the question is
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  why would they doubt? Why would some doubt? And the reason is they
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  saw him die and dead people don't come back to life. And then Jesus
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  launched into his farewell address. Here's Matthew's summery. You've heard this before.
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  Some of you can quote some of this. Here's what happened. Then Jesus
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  came to them and he said, I gotta just say one more thing before
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  we jump in deep. What follows is What follows is is perhaps the most
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  overlook verse or statement in the entire Bible. I should say it this way.
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  It's perhaps the most overlooked statement in terms of what should and could be
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  applied. And if the church had and if the church would embrace what Jesus
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  says next, it would change things almost instantaneously. In fact, if you
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  would embrace, and if I would embrace what Jesus says next, we would
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  change litsten know what he said. And Jesus came to them and he said,
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  all authority, all authority in heaven and on earth that would be everything
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  everywhere. All authority and heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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  To which they thought, oh, so that Messiah thing, that God's final
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  king things, that's for real. To what Jesus would say, Yeah,
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  all authority, get this, All authority rest in me. Quick question?
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  Do you know why? I know you've wondered, We've all wondered about this,
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  right. Do you know why the Church has been able to leverage the
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  Bible for all kinds of harmful nonsense through the ages. You know why the
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  church and church leaders and Christian people have been able to leverage the Bible for
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  all kinds of harmful things that end up harming other people who claim to be
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  Christians. It's because this statement, this statement has been reduced to just another
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  verse in the Bible, equated with every other statement or verse in our sacred
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  text. And so the Bible, the entire Bible, became the church's authority.
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  But the Bible says, Jesus is our ultimate and final authority. More
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  importantly, Jesus said, Jesus is our ultimate authority. The words of Jesus
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  are the final word, because he is our king right Now, as Jewish
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  men and women sitting there listening to Jesus, let me tell you what they
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  heard that we don't hear because we aren't Judeans, first century Judeans. Here,
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  here's what they heard when Jesus said, all authority and heaven on earth
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  belongs to me. Here's what he was. Here's what they thought they heard
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  him say. Here, here's the implication of what he said. Ladies and
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  gentlemen, Moses was your guy. Torah was your text. But the king
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  has arrived, the shadow castor is here. So when they saw him,
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  they worshiped him. They got what we miss and because they got what we
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  miss, they never misrepresented their king. But here's the other thing. They're
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  thinking, we know that's that's because of what happens next. And they're thinking,
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  wait, wait, wait, So so you're the king with all authority
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  and heaven on earth in the words you hold, you hold the keys to
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  heaven and earth. And where your guys, I mean, where are your
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  where are your posse? Where? Where are your people? Do what Jesus
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  will say, you are indeed, and with that association. With that association
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  comes extraordinary accountability. If you're going to continue to be my people? Do
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  you realize that everywhere you go and everything you do reflects on me? If
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  you're going to continue to associate with me, if you're going to continue to
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  be where my brand, if you're going to continue to use my name and
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  leverage my name, do you realize how accountable that makes you? To which
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  in that moment, when front of their resurrected king, they're like, absolutely,
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  we do, right, So hey, what do we do? Where
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  are your followers? Where are we going? You know what happens next?
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  Is now the time that we re establish the Kingdom of Israel on earth?
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  Is now the time we retake Jerusalem? My words, not theirs, But
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  I think this is what I would have thought. Hey, since you conquered
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  death, do we get to conquer something? Since you conquer death, do
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  we get to conquer some people? Do we get to conquer the Romans?
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  I mean, all authority in heaven and earth belongs to you? Do we
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  finally do we finally get to call down fire on our enemies like we tried
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  to do two months ago and you wouldn't let us? Is that what's about
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  to happen? To which Jesus would smile and say as we're about to discover.
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  No, I got way bigger plans for you than Jerusalem. I have
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  way bigger plans for you than Judea. I even have way bigger plans for
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  you than this territory of Galilee. We're about to launch something for the entire
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  world, and you, ladies and gentlemen, have no idea how big the
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  world actually is. But you're not going to conquer anything. I'm going to
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  send you out with an invitation. I'm going to send you out to extend
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  the same invitation I extended to you when we first met. Therefore, therefore
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  go and make disciples now. In this phrase and the ones that follow,
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  there are several participles in the Greek text, but there's only one imperative.
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  There's only one command. The only command is make dicipleples. The implication is
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  this, as you go, as you are going, as you are living,
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  as you are doing life, wherever you do life, and wherever you
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  travel. Your responsibility, if you're going to associate yourself with me, is
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  to make sure you are engaged in some form or fashion with making more Jesus
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  followers. In other words, Jesus can say, if I show back up
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  in a year, I expect there to be more of you. If I
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  show up in ten years, I expect there to be a lot more of
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  you for the rest of your life. Part of your responsibility as you go,
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  as you raise your kids, as you do life, as you age.
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  Part of your responsibility if you're going to associate with me, is to
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  take on the mantle of responsibility of living your life in such a way and
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  engage you with people in such a way that you multiply yourself. You replicate
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  yourself that there are more of us because of you than there was before.
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  As you go multiply, and then he says this, this is where they
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  tap the brakes of all people groups. Therefore, make disciples, make more
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  followers of me, all people groups of all nations to which they have.
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  You know, immediately thought, wait, Gentiles, gentile Parthians. Wait.
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  Romans looked around the room group and they were looking at each other like anybody
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  here ever been to Rome. They're like, we've never even been outside of
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  Galilee. We just judea Galilee. This is the only world we know.
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  You're telling us that you want us to make disciples Jesus followers of every nation.
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  Even Rome is this gonna work in Rome. I don't think this is
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  gonna play very well in Rome. Wait, Samaritans. Does this include the
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  Samaritans to which they knew? Of course, it includes the Samaritans. He's
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  already dealt with that. He made a Samaritan a hero and one of his
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  favorite famous parables. Not only that, we were in Samarian there was the
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  woman and he's talking to her privately, and that was weird. And then
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  she becomes like the hero of her town because she introduces their whole Samaritan town
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  to our rabbi. I think he means the Samaritans. And then again we
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  zip right by is because of our church traditions, another participle, baptizing them
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  as you go make disciples, baptizing them. This is covenant language. This
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  is full inclusion. This is no distinction. And once again they're thinking,
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  but the Gentiles, I mean, we don't even cross their threshold. We
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  don't allow them to cross our threshold. There's dietary stuff, there's moral stuff.
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  I mean, wait a minute, full inclusion of non Hebrew, non
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  Torri believing people, no distinction. We're challenge sometimes who should be in and
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  who should be out of a local church. I'm telling you what they felt
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  in this moment. We can't even begin to comquer him. He said,
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  yeah, and when you baptize them, you're going to baptize them again.
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  We rushed right by this. This was so offensive unless he was who we
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  claim to be, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son
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  and the Holy Spirit. Once again, he includes himself in a list that
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  where no mere mortal belongs, where no mere mortal should be included, equating
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  himself with Deity, equating himself with the Father. Therefore, go and make
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  disciples. Oh yeah, and as you were going to baptize. And then
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  maybe here's the most important part of this, teaching them as you go and
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  make disciples. There's a teaching element of this. And so we'll teach them
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  what I want you to teach them to obey, not just believe. I
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  want you to teach them to obey, well, obey who, and obey
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  what everything that I have commanded you. Have you ever thought about the implications
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  of this statement. I want you to teach them, guys, ladies and
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  gentlemen, everything I've taught you. I want you to take what I have
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  taught you, and I want you to replicate that, and I want you
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  to live it out, and I want you to teach it to others.
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  Remember my mountain message or he remember your mountain message. There was so much.
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  I want you to teach that. Remember the thing about the log and
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  the eye and the spec I want you to teach that. Remember the extra
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  mile. I want you to teach that. Remember when I told you you
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  got to fix it with them before you try to fix it with him,
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  that you cannot fix it with him until you fix it with them. I
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  want to make sure you teach that. I want you to teach people to
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  forgive regardless. I want you to teach people to be the Samaritan in that
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  parable, and not be the older brother in the other parables. I want
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  you to teach them to do unto other people the way they want people to
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  do unto them. But then I want you to take it up a notch.
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  I want you to teach people to love one another the way I've loved
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  you, and I want you to teach them to love their enemies the way
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  I loved you when you were my enemy. I want you to teach them
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  to love their enemies the way I loved you after you betrayed me, abandoned
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  me, and quit believing me. I want you to teach them to wash
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  one another's feet like I washed your feet. You remember that night, They're
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  like, oh my goodness. It took forever and nobody spoke a word.
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  All we could hear was the drip of that water in the pan. And
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  there's our Rabbi that we thought might be Messiah on his knees and we're in
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  the elevated position as we sit, and he's in the not so elevated position
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  as he washed it. We'll never forget that. And you remember what I
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  told you, as I've done for you, you were to do for others.
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  If you ever get too big for your breeches, you just find some
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  feet to wash. That's what I want you to teach, and that's what
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  I want you to do. I want you to teach them to do everything
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  I have commanded you to do. Pause. What if we've been doing that?
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  What if that had been our focus? What if that had been the
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  focus of our teaching and our preaching and our discipling and our discussions. What
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  if obay not simply believing? What if obeying what Jesus taught, had been
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  the epicenter of our preaching and teaching all these years for generations. The world
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  would be a better place, the church would be a healthier place. And
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  then, if that's not enough, Jesus gives them a promise. And again
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  we misapply this because we have taken these verses and we have just allowed them
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  to blend in with everything else in the text. But they are so pre
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  eminent, they're so important. They're at the epicenter of everything that we are
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  and what we believe is Christians. Here's what here's the promise he makes.
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  And surely, he says, don't worry, because imagine what they're thinking.
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  Wait, you want us to go into the whole world. Our world is
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  so small. We don't know how to do this. We don't know how
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  to talk to gentiles. We don't even know any gentiles. We hate the
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  Samaritans, they hate us. Rome is our enemy. Wait, wait,
• 25:48
  wait, this is way too much for us. And Jesus appreciates the fact
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  that they're so overwhelmed. It is overwhelming to think about. It is overwhelming
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  for us to think about, he says, But I'll make you promise if
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  you do this. Surely I am with you always to the very end of
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  this current age. But here's the question, who is you? Are you?
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  You? Am I? You? Are you? You? Do you
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  know? Who you is? You is believers whose belief has feet. You
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  as believers who understand we're partnering with our king. You are the disciple makers?
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  Do you? I know the answer is kind of rhetorical, But do
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  you want Jesus to be with you? That? According to Jesus, you
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  have to be with him because he is a way bigger deal than you,
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  and he is a way bigger deal than me, and his agenda is a
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  way bigger agenda and a way more important agenda than my personal agenda. Do
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  you want Jesus to be with you? Then you have to choose to be
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  with him? Are you with him? On? This is to make a
• 27:19
  specific is any of your time? Are any of your resources already ahead of
• 27:30
  time allocated that is part of the rhythm of your life? Predecided carved out?
• 27:36
  Is any of your time? Are any of your resources allocated to making
• 27:41
  more followers of Jesus? Does any of your money or your time intersect systematically
• 27:48
  with the endeavors of a local church or an organization somewhere to make more disciples.
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  In other words, to do your resources and your time. Does it
• 27:56
  intersect systematically with the mission of your king? Are you engaged? Am I
• 28:02
  engaged in our King's business? Or are we too caught up minding our own.
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  Here's what I know, and this thrills me. While I'm speaking.
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  There are hundreds of teenagers and adults who are at this very moment making disciples
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  not of all nations, but of the next generation. And if you're part
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  of that group, thank you that. In our local churches there are thousands
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  of you that meet in homes every single week or every other week, to
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  sit in circles and ask the questions, how do we do this? How
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  do we live this out? How do I live this out in my difficult
• 28:44
  marriage? How this out with my difficult boss? How do I live this
• 28:47
  out while I'm unemployed? How do I live this out? What does it
• 28:49
  look like to follow Jesus? Pray for me, hold me accountable? I
• 28:53
  want to get this right. Every week, people in circles all around our
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  cities. They share their stories, and people here the stories and they're encouraged
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  to follow Jesus and inspired to follow Jesus because people have put feet on their
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  faith, and hundreds of people stand out in parking lots to assure that the
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  local church experience is hitting on all cylinders and is fabulous. And hundreds and
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  thousands of people just in our network of churches plus churches all over the world
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  show up on the weekends and in the week during the week to serve other
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  people in Jesus' name. And many of you are involved in nonprofit organizations in
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  your local community and all over the world to ensure that people hear the message
• 29:30
  of Jesus combined with the things they need in the moment. Because you understand
• 29:37
  that when you meet a person's physical need in the name of Jesus, you're
• 29:41
  opening the door to them perhaps becoming a follower of Jesus. So for those
• 29:45
  of you who are already doing that, thank you. I can make this
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  promise to you without any hesitation. Your Savior is with you because you are
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  with help. These were Jesus' final instructions them. That makes them essential,
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  that makes them fundamental. It's how we got here. So number seven on
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  our list is simply this. Jesus followers are multipliers. Jesus followers, they're
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  not just believers. Jesus followers are multipliers. This is something you have to
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  believe, whether you ever do it or not, because this is what Jesus
• 30:22
  said about his followers. Jesus followers are multipliers collectively sometimes individually. Now maybe
• 30:32
  I'm overreading this or maybe I'm thinking too hard about it, but I think
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  for some people who hear a message like this, especially if you're more of
• 30:38
  a traditional Christian, you may be thinking something like this. Andy. And
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  I don't take this personally because I'm saying it not you, But Andy,
• 30:47
  I don't really like your list. I think your list is ridiculous. You've
• 30:49
  just made all of this up. Okay, Andy, let me just tell
• 30:52
  you I'm a little bit more theologically astute than you and the people and your
• 30:56
  churches that if you call it that, because I like the Apostles Creed.
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  I like the Apostles Creed or some of the other Creeds. But I like
• 31:04
  the Apostles Creed better than your list, and some of you are familiar with
• 31:07
  the Apostles Creed. Right. I believe in God, the Father, Almighty,
• 31:12
  Maker of heaven and earth. Then I'm adding this, I believe in
• 31:15
  Jesus, Christ's only Son and our Lord. And it goes from there all
• 31:18
  these things that we believe. And you know what, the apostles creed.
• 31:22
  Most of the creeds are way more theologically robust than our fundamentalist But you look
• 31:30
  it up if you don't believe what I'm about to say. That creed,
• 31:33
  its origins and as it evolved through time, along with some of the other
• 31:37
  creeds, were created in an era when the Church was condoning all manner of
• 31:42
  unchrist like activity. When the church substitutes belief for obedience to what Jesus taught.
• 31:53
  When the Church substitutes belief statements or creeds. When the Church substitutes belief
• 32:00
  for following obeying what Jesus taught, people always get hurt, but worse,
• 32:06
  they get hurt in the name of Jesus. Then Jesus came to them,
• 32:13
  imagine this moment, and he said, all authority, all authority, Jesus
• 32:20
  is your authority, because he's your king. All authority and heaven on earth
• 32:24
  has been given to me by my father. And since I'm in charge,
• 32:30
  and since I'm a way bigger deal, and since I've demonstrated who I am
• 32:34
  by rising from the dead, here's what I want you to do in response.
• 32:37
  Therefore, I want you to go, and as you go, I
• 32:39
  want you to reproduce. I want you to multiply. I want you to
• 32:44
  be a part of making disciples. At the end of your life, I
• 32:46
  want you to be able to look back and say, look at him,
• 32:50
  look at her. I was part of her story. I was part of
• 32:52
  I wasn't his whole story. I was part of that story. I was
• 32:54
  part of that group of children's story. I was part of this college student
• 32:58
  story. I wasn't the whole story. But is a part of their story.
• 33:00
  They are obeying and following Jesus because my life and my time and my
• 33:05
  resources intersected with their life and their time. So teaching them to obey everything
• 33:13
  I've commanded you, let's just do this, or to be honest and to
• 33:17
  be fair. Let's keep doing this. And if you're not playing a part,
• 33:21
  you got to find your part. You've got to be about the King's
• 33:23
  business. It's not an add on. It's not for professionals. It's for
• 33:28
  everybody. It's fundamental, it's essential. Jesus followers are multipliers, So figure
• 33:36
  out a way to be a multiplier. It's how the world changed. We
• 33:39
  can't even imagine two handfuls of many women who'd never been anywhere that they couldn't
• 33:45
  walk. We're given the responsibility. It was so fragile, The whole endeavor
• 33:52
  was so fragile, based on where they were, who they were, what
• 33:57
  they had, what they didn't have, and the fact that Rome was everything.
• 34:00
  It was so fragile. They figured it out and they were good stewards
• 34:07
  of the gospel in their generation. And we have been called to be good
• 34:09
  stewards of the Gospel in ours. So be a multipliers how the world changed.
• 34:14
  And come on, I don't know your story, but if you're a
• 34:15
  Christian, it's how you were changed. Somebody invested their time and you,
• 34:20
  whether it was a parent, a grandparent, a Sunday school teacher, somebody
• 34:22
  you met at work. So let's do for others what others did for us.
• 34:28
  And if we do, he will be with us because we have decided
• 34:35
  to be with him.