Pastor Ralph Douglas West - Commission on Mission | Matthew 28:16-20

0:00 Hallelujah. Thank you, choir, for blessing us again. Our women's choir. They only sing four times in a year. So those of you that are looking for ministry and you're always trying to take the song over in the pew. and your time is compromised so you're not able to give weekly service in music ministry but you say, I can do four Sundays out of the year and you want to unite with them on these fifth Sundays and I encourage you to do it. Particularly you young people Yeah.

1:00 I say this every week, eventually you're going to get it. Now, we've done our part. We've built it, paid for it. All you got to do is lead it. Anybody can stand in the arena and complain about it. I want to know, can you get on the field and play about it? That's what I want to know. So that'll be a good start for some of you who want to be sensational.

1:38 You can start by singing in the choir. Yeah. Thank you for your testimony today. Thank you, pastor and pastor, for being with us today. What a joy. Praise God for that. And you said that the baby wanted to go to the children.

2:04 It is your first time with us. It is your first time here. Your baby wanted to go to the children. Well, I'm going somewhere. Y'all clapping. I told you, I said, my church, they don't listen. You just start thinking, you know. So this is your first time here. Your daughter want to go? Now, you let your daughter go? because in my church, I got parents that tell me their children not going, and they don't let them go, and they're members here. You're not a member of this church. You didn't help build, you know what I'm saying, you built the kingdom.

2:57 I'm talking about, Lord have mercy. I'm just saying now, Now, that's what I meant. Now, you saw how excited y'all were getting when you thought you knew where I was going. That temperature dropped now. And look, some of y'all just as mad. Hey, I'm just asking. I mean, the lady that's up first time here, the baby said, I want to go. And I bet you, I bet you, and I know where, well, yeah, it's okay. I bet you that a lot of your children want to go. and you the one that don't let them go. I'm just saying I'm going to preach about you today very serious thank you for letting your baby go there we built it our whole ministry much of it is built around how do we care for children and young people to build up mature Christian faith in them that they'll be able to stand on their own feet and be able to express their own witness Particularly as they are challenged As adolescents going into college And military and trade and marriage On how and what they believe So I really mean this Thank you for letting your baby go over To be without you They are in a great place We got some great people over there Matthew 28 I tell you getting older is something I mean this in a good, good, good way you're wiser and I asked the Lord praying I don't normally tell people uh my prayers I said Lord guard my lips that I don't say anything that would offend people so when I say what I say I'm not and I'm only speaking for those of you who are new in Christ and new in our church who it might walk away and say, Pastor West is a very mean man.

4:54 No, I am a man who loves you enough to tell you the truth, whether you want to hear it or not. Now, that's who I really am, okay? All right. Matthew 28, verses 16 through verse 20.

5:14 Jesus' final words, and I want to tag this text, commission on mission. Therefore go into the world and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you, and surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. This is the word of God. You may be seated. Jesus has resurrected. He's making his final appearances before he departs to return back to the right seat of his father.

6:16 His disciples are gathered around him Matthew identifies 11 For those of you that may not be familiar with the discipleship story There were 12 for 3 years One disqualified himself named Judas Iscariot Jesus returns to where he had been In Galilee he scales a mountain and on that mountain he's 11 around them when he begins to speak his last words you and I know the importance of last words how significant they are time does not permit neither is it really part of my manuscript to talk about last words, but last words are important.

7:18 Jesus speaks these as people have gathered to worship him. And a strange notation Matthew makes in his writing, some worshiped him and some doubted. Amidst the worship, there were those who were there. Who doubted. And then Jesus said to the 11. And you and I know that there are probably more than the 11 that are there. And when he speaks he says all power has been invested in me. Authority is in my hand. And I want you now to go into the world. and bear witness and make disciples and incorporate them into the fellowship as well as the kingdom and I'll be with you always, always, even to the end of the ages.

8:29 Jesus gives us this word. I know for most of you, it's probably not the most exciting word. The words we really like from Jesus are the ones where he's doing something for us. But these are words where Jesus says, now I've done it, and now I'm putting my whole ministry in your hands. Think about this for a moment. The success of Jesus' ministry, The elongation of his life in Houston depends on you.

9:11 There are those that will criticize what the church isn't. And they don't know that when they say that they're speaking of themselves. I want you to hear this. Because often we act like the people who are frequent flyers. we hear the flight attendant make the same precautionary speech on how to survive a flight and they have to remind us even if you are a frequent flyer take the card out of the pocket in front of you and read it periodically you and I need to return to the big B the return of the basics to hear Jesus say, I did not bequeath my church into the hands of Pastor Wes only.

10:08 I left my church in the hands of the church. I left my mission in the life of the church and you determine how people respond to me in the world. Now, I have four questions. But I must be honest, I didn't get past the first two at the eight o'clock service. And I had more time to preach to them than I do to you. The question first when you read this, and I hope you have your Bibles open or your phone or pad, and you're not playing with your fingernails now.

10:52 Because this is where people truly get thrown off. They say these words. I didn't get nothing out of church. It's hard to get anything out of church if you don't pay attention to what the last words are. So I want you to hear me now. And keep in mind the success. I don't like that word for church, but I'm using it because it's the one that we identify with the most as North Americans. The success of the church is not dependent upon a person. It is dependent upon every one of you here today. So tomorrow, when you say, I don't like church, be careful when you say that. You're saying, I don't like myself. I'm self-loathing. I don't do nothing. because the church is not this brick and mortar.

11:47 It's not this concrete. The church is the living, breathing people who are empowered by God's Holy Spirit. You don't like that, do you? Well, I've been preaching all my life to get ready for a sermon like this, because I see that you and I are having conflict in this message. Four questions.

12:15 You've read them. The Commission on Mission. The first question is, who are the people to do this? is answered in the verses that I've already read. The 11 disciples who are the apostles who become the apostolic witness of the church. And then that witness is passed down to the patristics. Those are the church fathers. And then the church goes through a period of medieval Christianity. where things are dark and really the life of the church is being cut out because of liturgical practices. And then there is pre-Reformation and Reformation, post-Reformation, Enlightenment. And then we get into the 20th century and now the 21st century.

13:15 And the church has lasted, sustained, been vibrant because of people who are born the same witness of the 11 that Jesus spoke to that day. But not just 11. 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says that on the day of resurrection, there were more than 500 people that cited Jesus as alive. So the one thing that we know is that Christ is alive. People saw him indoors and outdoors, on mountains and in valleys and in shut up rooms and walking down streets And then more than that, the dead got up because he got up. And boy, witness that Christ is alive. And what is the message?

14:08 The message is that Jesus is alive. And who are the people that are supposed to tell this message? Here's the answer. Everyone. Everyone who has touched of God's grace. everyone who has confessed Jesus as Lord everyone that claims to be born again everyone that has called upon the name of the Lord and been saved everyone that has experienced Christ in a personal way are supposed to tell others about who Jesus is but Pastor West I haven't gone to seminary he didn't say go into the world those of you who have been to seminary divinity school, Bible studies. Remember these men who are around Jesus, not counting the women, these are, in their own words, unlearned, uninformed, ignorant men who have no certificates from the university.

15:09 Well, none of them have matriculated in any Bible school. These are just old fishermen that God has called as a symbol that God can use anybody that will make themselves available to him to bear witness. But you see, Pastor West, I don't know them phrases. That's your problem, trying to imitate what somebody else said. You know what God has done for you? Tell your story. Don't tell somebody else's story. in preparation for this morning I was reading through mission history and one missionary records and everybody that God can use a blind illiterate woman who had experienced God's grace.

16:07 And in doing so, she asked the missionary, can you point me to John 3.16? He said, yes. She gave him the Bible, her Bible, and said, can you bend the page for me? He said yes. He said can you underline John 3.16 which you highlighted for me. He said yes.

16:41 And then he was curious. She couldn't read. She couldn't see. She's carrying a Bible. She goes to the local school and when the boys are getting out of school she would stop them at random. and asked them, can you read French? For her Bible was in French. They said yes. And she would go to John 3.16 because of the bent paper. And said, do you see that verse underlined? Said yeah, could you read it? And they read it. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And she just asked him, do you believe it? And out of her life, it is recorded that of the young boys that she led to Jesus, blind and ignorant, 24 of them became pastors.

17:44 If you can say pastor ketchup, you can tell somebody, Jesus lives. So the question of the people, everyone. Now that responds to two things that this verse refers to that we have read beginning at 19 when it says, there before I go make disciples. Two things. One is the imperative. We said enough about that to go, baptize, to teach, make the imperatives. These are not options, by the way, church. These are not options.

18:26 And the church and Christians are the only people that I know that's always trying to redact what God said. He didn't stutter. He didn't stammer. He said what he said. And we ought to do what he says. Period. every mission, every vision of the church rests on these verses. So all of you who say, that's unimportant to me, well, I'm here to tell you, any church open in our Lord's name today rests on these verses. And if these verses are not at the heart of that church, they may be a building, they may be a gathering, they may be a assembly, they may be a chapel, They may be an association, but they're not the church. The church is built upon the confession of who Christ Jesus is. Go into the world and teach my people.

19:26 Now, on one hand is the imperative. The second is the empowerment. Because then you say, well, Pastor West, I'm afraid to go and do it. and that's a fear factor sometimes but most of us we just don't do it you know we don't need new methods and methodologies we just need obedience and love for people if you see somebody that's lost you'll try to find them if you saw somebody stammering in the dark you'll try to provide them with light you saw somebody who was thirsty and you had water you would want to give them the drink if you saw somebody on the side of the road and they were hungry You would want to give them bread. If you saw somebody that was drowning, you would want to throw out a lifeline. You don't have to know them, have never seen them. It's just the humanity in you that appeals to the humanity in somebody else.

20:24 If you love God, the love of Christ, it will lead you to want to give to them what you have. And this should be the most exciting sermon. And I'm looking at body language of disinterest. But I would be too if I didn't do nothing. I would be disinterested too. I would go home and here's a comment. Pastor West just mad today. I ain't mad at you. You, I pray, learn that when you have been empowered with God's spirit, God requires of us to bear witness to who he is. Here you go. Our streets are dangerous.

21:16 Yes, they are. Our schools are dangerous. Yes, they are. You see, the point is we don't need new streets. We need new pedestrians on the street. We don't need new education. We need new people to be educated. That is, once God changes your heart and your mind and your life, you change the circumstances around you. The politicalization of the world takes place when you understand that you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Salt gets involved wherever there is corruption and disruption and destruction. You get involved in it Preach Pastor West I didn't mean to go that far But that's the answer The empowerment.

22:10 When I was younger, some of you lived through this era, and that is when you had a car and it ran almost empty. This is prior to you having a red light with reserve in it. You saw E, and that was it. You didn't pull over to the service station. No, not in them days. You pulled over into the filling station. And the fill-in station had an attendant that would come to the window and would ask you how much? And you'll say, I'm empty. Fill it up. When you come to the church, the empowerment of God is the filling station where you say, I'm empty. Now fill me up. How do you get full? you ask God, Ephesians 5, 18, fill me with your Holy Spirit and keep on filling me up.

23:11 Power. Now, when I say these things as a pastor, and I'm speaking today out of my pastoral heart, I'm not at you. I know I have to say that. I came along a year where the preacher just said anything, he never apologized for nothing. But I have to say it today because we live in a culture that's so sensitive about everything. Every little thing. People are sensitive. Pastor West was yelling up, sensitive. I'm just passionate about it because I want the best for you. I don't want you to live life as a Christian powerless when you have so much power available unto you. God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love and a power and a sound mind. Power. This is what Jesus meant in John 16 when he says that I'm giving you the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit has been so trivialized in the church.

24:21 You hear people talking about they got the Holy Ghost. Why? Because they clapping? They were clapping at the club. That ain't got nothing to do with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit is God's power inside of you enabling you to do that which you could not do in your own strength. I have one prayer. I may not pray at Monday too Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, but I got one prayer on Sunday. Lord, I got 30 minutes. And I know how diverse a community that gathers at the church when I was. Give me the right words. Think with my mind. Help me to be illustrative enough that people hear your word, but not so clever that my stories get in the way of what the content of the gospel is.

25:16 Help me to shine light that somebody leave today and say, that's what I've been needing all in my life. Your family is broken. God can mend it. You feel empty. God can fill you. And ask God today, fathers and mothers, for yourself, but ask for your children. God, fill us up with your Holy Spirit. Help us to be filled anew by you. Empowered. Empowered.

25:52 Empowered. Herbert Jackson is a missionary. Herbert had to come off the mission field because of sickness. When he was on the field, he had been given a car. I said to the members at eight o'clock this morning the things that we take for granted missionaries these are luxuries I described it at eight exuberant luxuries I mean you'll sit down we got two three four cars well in the mission field a car could be the difference between life and death the preacher the missionary becomes many ways the doctor the attorney the counselor having to go into these back alleys and villages. Sometimes if they could just get a bicycle. I remember when we bought bicycles for pastors over in Africa.

26:47 I remember that. And how delighted they were over a bicycle. A bike. Mine is in the garage on a flat. But they ride these bikes. This is their mode of transportation. and Herbert had a problem as soon as he got the car every time he tried to it just wouldn't start it broke down so he went and asked some of the boys in the neighborhood if they would help him you know push his car and so when he would drive it he would always try to stop on a mound so when he got in it he could open the door push it down jump in and some of y'all remember this language pop the clutch some of y'all remember that Pop clutch. Boom.

27:37 A lot of you here, you just don't know the fun you missed not growing up in this. I'll tell you, this was good stuff, you know. And so the kids would sometimes have to push him, you know, get it started. With sickness, I mentioned, took him off the mission field. And before he left, a new missionary came. and the new missionary was given the car with the same difficulties. The new missionary asked if he could pop the hood of the car and got under it and he said, I think I may have located the problem. He said the cables on this distributor as well as on this battery are loose and so he tightened him up he says the problem is the connection problem is the connection i can preach all day and you'll sit there with your arms folded mad complaining but the moment you ask god fill me with your presence all of a sudden you start hearing god's word differently because spirit starts calling the spirit we need god's power if we're going to make a difference in the world.

28:55 My time is almost up. Can I give you one more question before I sit down? So you say, who then are the people? And the answer is what? Everyone. There you go. That's why like, you know, y'all act like you don't hear, but you get it. Just like them students in class act like they don't get it until you put that exam and say, this is pass or fail. Ain't no D's, see, pass or fail. You start listening different then. And so that everyone who are the people everyone where's the place where's the place Jesus says go And then he describes You know go into the world Go into all the nations There's like 8.1 billion people On the planet now Isn't that something Things have increased just over the last We remember when it was 7.5 We had 8.1 now In the world Wow lock off the meters quality pressure electric horn

30:16 electric horn up here. I just paid you a compliment. That's when you're supposed to really get excited on that compliment. Thank you for that. But it's true. You're not a low-hanging fruit kind of people. You're saying, I want to scale up.

30:42 And so here, the question then is where's the place? And Jesus says, go into the world. Acts picks it up and gets even more descriptive in Acts 1 and 8. It says, and you'll receive power, that is again, after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you'll be my witnesses. Witnesses.

31:09 Witnesses where? In Jerusalem. That's in your house. That's Houston. Judea. That's down or up the road. Samaria, that's out of town, on the uttermost parts of the earth. And today I was so excited to see the different countries represented leading worship that they read in the scripture, praying the prayer, leading worship. And the uttermost parts of the world. The church, come here for a minute. I'm not talking to your neighbor, I'm talking to you now. And you have a responsibility not just Pastor West but Pastor West no you have a responsibility let me say it again you are required to take the gospel everywhere Everywhere.

32:11 And some of us can't go everywhere. And we live in a time, I mean, look at the time. And here's why we need not be silly with the gifts that God has given to us. My heart aches sometimes. You have to remember, I listen to things differently because of what I do and who I am.

32:39 And so I'm listening, and when I hear triviality, and foolishness and thin theology and pitiful piety and ridiculous religiosity. You sit there and you ache and you say, man, we are, it's an urgency to bring men and women to Jesus Christ. And here we are playing around.

33:03 Let's turn the church into a club. Really? I don't care. I'm just saying, if that's what you want to do, fine. I don't care nothing about your ripped up jeans. I look up and people, preachers preaching about jeans. One preaching about why we ought to wear them. Another one, why we ought not wear them. I said jeans. I mean you got people dying at the border and you're worried about some jeans.

33:36 Hair do. Hair do. come on really had to here you have people being miseducated and you're worried about hairdos. Is the boy in school, is he learning? That's good enough for me. Better than that to the church. Really? I'm just glad you're here. These days, show up any way you want. Now don't take that literally. But some of y'all are like, oh, I'm going to bust up in that joint next week.

34:27 But we have too much at stake to be worried about trivial things. One reason why I never, never talk about young people, because when I was young, I was young. I passed at this church when I was in my 20s. Every new house style, I had them. I wore my Tims and baggy jeans. I wasn't trying. I grew up in the ghetto, so I just had that ghetto swag with me. So I wasn't trying to be that. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. You don't want me out here trying to act like I'm 29 again or 30.

35:23 You want me to walk out here and say, that's the pastor of the church with our walls right there Trust me, trust me. You want to see me out public and say, that's the pastor. You don't want me busting up in there looking like Raphael.

35:46 No, no, we don't want that. Be who you be. I've lived that life. I'm living something else now. And so we don't, let's not get confused. Where's the place? Now here's the downside If we're not careful The only place that we will bear witness Will be in this room And we come here We've already covered that While we come here to be empowered Our goal is to take God's word Out into the world To missionize the world To turn men and women Toward Jesus Christ I'm done now You may never be a missionary But you can be involved in missions David Livingston spent the majority of his life as a missionary in Africa In his life he traveled 29,000 miles in Africa on foot his health broke his wife died in the field that's not a reason why you need to pray for missionaries because they don't we don't talk about two things how many of the wives and children died and how many of them are martyred i'm not talking about in the 1800s i'm talking about now Matt Nasdaq Father Faith Livingstone went on to pray the prayer and that was just simply to the Lord that when I'm weak make me strong never sever the cards that bind me.

37:37 And that can be our prayer as we pray for others and pray for Christ's work in the world. I'm done. My time is up. Let me just give you one more thing. And that is the perversion, the perversion. What perverts missions? The time doesn't permit you know that so what perverse what distorts it what keeps the mission from going out sometimes doing good is the worst thing that could happen to us let me explain it's called busyness busy busy busy busy don't necessarily mean fruitfulness Now the church needs everything that the church does for the equipping of brothers and sisters in the faith. But business for business sake as a marketing tool to attract people and all the people we normally attract, we're just siphoning off from some other place.

38:47 we need bible studies small group we need that that's where health grows spirituality develop we got to have worship all this and then we take what we've heard out into the world but we're not careful busyness can be against us I read of a man Who had this truck It's a ton truck One ton truck And he's driving down I-35 Every 500 feet he stops Gets out of his truck Grabs an oak wood fence pole And beats the truck on different sides, front and back. Get in the car, drive 500 feet, get out the car, take this oak wood fence post and beat the car and get back and drive 500 feet.

39:57 A patrolman saw it, thought it amusing, and at the next 500 feet and pull over, the patrolman pulled in behind him just to ask him I mean what are you doing he said well this is a ton truck he said got it he said I got two tons of chickens in the back and I got to pull over every 500 feet to beat the truck to keep some of the chickens flying dollars." sometimes church ain't no more than going down the road doing the same thing and getting no kind of results and the truth is busyness is not what keeps us productive it is when we focus ourself upon the will of the loving God that God who has called us in the relationship with himself Now my time is completely up.

41:02 Let me just close now. Because one of the other questions would have been what kind of programs, what kind of programs? We've done that. You could just guess about what kind of programs. When Edmund Hillary in 1953 had finally assaulted the peak of Mount Everest,

41:25 the last spotting of him, he had gone up into the clouds and disappeared. when Hillary didn't come down they said we got to have a unified story what is it going to be how can we report our last sighting without fabricating and this is what they said let's just write this Hillary last seen reaching for the peak can we evangelize all of Houston missionize it no can we evangelize the whole world as a church I'm talking about us no but they can and we can have a unified story lasting reaching to do the best that they could do reaching on Queenston and reaching on Little Yacht and reaching on Highway 6 and reaching on Eldridge and reaching on Bingo.

42:44 We don't have to do all of it, but we ought to do what we can do where God has put his people with a purpose and a power to get things done. Who are the people? Everybody.

43:11 Where do we do the work? Everywhere. What's the perversion? Don't get busy. It's confused with fruitfulness. What's the program? To do what Jesus said, do. go into the world and make disciples. And I'm telling you, discipleship is not getting a certificate after 27 weeks.

43:37 Discipleship is when you give your life to learn about who Christ Jesus is. I didn't say you have to enroll in a Bible study, in a Bible school or seminary. I didn't say that. But it seemed like somewhere you want to know something about this Jesus, about this Holy Spirit, about this God who chooses to live inside of you. That's what I've given my life to. And I've asked God, in spite of it all, when I get my 30 minutes on Sunday, I want somebody to leave saying, I don't like him. But he sure did teach us.

44:21 Not that he did. He taught us. He taught us. He taught us. And I'm aware, church, let me tell you something, I'm aware for a lot of people, not you, I'm talking about 8 o'clock, for a lot of people, learning ain't high on the list.

44:47 You know why I can shout? I shout every Sunday. I don't shout like you shout. You don't shout like I shout. I shout every Sunday. I'm happy. Because the more I know about him. that's all I'm getting to I'm down the more I know about Jesus see you can't make me doubt I don't care what people say about you I don't care I don't know that Jesus they talking about but the one that I'm talking about is the one that was born that lived that died and look at this on the third day morning, God raised him up. And now he has all power in his hands.

45:43 Come on, let's go to God this morning. Our Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for missions. We thank you for testimonies, for scriptures, for prayers, for word. thank you for our very emphasis in our church where we edify missions. Thank you for the resources that the people of this congregation for 34 years, 36 years have given to support missions and missionaries. So thank you for that. Thank you for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. when we can't do it on our own. You are the one who empower us to get the work done.

46:40 And Lord, these days it's a marvel to see how you do it. With so many changes, and yet you're still able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask, think, or comprehend that when it looks like we ought to be in the margin you always put us in the bonus and so we thank you today for what you have done and what you continue to do I pray for your people now they love you teach them to love you even more and then we pray for those today who will make decisions listening in at home in the car out of the country to surrender their life to the Lord Jesus Christ may we respond to them immediately and then those who are here in this sacred space without debate discussion negotiation or dialogue as the Holy Spirit has done his work long before I finish.

47:51 Move upon them to move them forward. May they not resist the Holy Spirit, quench him, grieve him, but surrender to him and let the day be that day of empowerment. In Jesus' name we pray. And all God's people say amen. Come on, give God praise today. Quickly, come on, as the choir they're gonna sing.