OYC 2010: Awakened Hope

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Oregon Youth for Christ

John Miller

OYC 2010 Plenary Sessions

The Good News Gospel

Louis Torres

New Wine, Old Bottles

Boris Jovinov

Follow-Through

Jed Daniel Lee

The Fruit of the Spirit: The Christian Character

Rejects of Society - Evangelists?

Christopher John

Walk in the Hope of the Commission

We are going to talk about the hope of the commission of Jesus. O i c is about awakened hope. And our goal is not that you come and congregate, but our goal is that you came and the hope of Jesus sprung alive in your life. Amen. As you listen here and as you listen at home, we hope that whatever it is that is burdening you, you will give it to the Lord. Amen. And that hope will spring alive within you. That will catch hope to another. We're gonna talk about the Gospel commission. If I was to ask you what is the Gospel Commission, most people would tell me that the Gospel commission is go ye into the world and preach the gospel. That is the gospel commission. That's the scripture we know the gospel commission from. But today I want to take you to a different scripture that teaches the Gospel commission and what the gospel commission is. What are we supposed to go and preach and how? So we're going to look in a different place, but see what the word of God has to say. I have a story that I would like to tell you. There was a bus driver Who was driving a busload of children. He had 50 kids on the bus, and as he was going down the hill, the brakes on the bus went out, coming down a very, very steep windy hill. 50 kids, a windy hill, a huge bus. It's not a good mix. The breaks are out. What do you do? We bow our heads in prayer that kind, most gracious God, we thank you for the opportunity to be here today and lift up your name. Father, as you allow me to open up my mouth for you, father, let I decrease, that Christ may increase. Father bless the hearers, Lord bless the word. And Lord, let your will be done. That glory may be given unto you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. If you will turn with me in your Bibles to Matthews 1128 through 30, Matthews chapter 11 verses 28 through 30, Matthews chapter 11 verses 28 through 30. As we go, as we go through the scripture, we will find many contrast into working for Christ into serving Jesus. But we will find that it is not a lazy service. It is not a service that you just do. Now, if I was to ask you, as many of us and many of you at home, know this scripture, come unto me only that labor and or what. Amen. And I will give you unto what your souls. Now what does come means? Can anyone hear, give me a definition of the word. Come Draw near, Draw near anyone else From somewhere else To arrive some, some from somewhere else. Okay? When we hear this scripture come unto me, all that labor and our heavy laden, what do we hear? Man, I can run to Jesus and cast all my cares upon him and I'm good. Oh, praise the Lord. I just give it to Jesus. Is that what the scripture is saying? Is he saying, come on to me only that labor on a heavy LA and then I will give you rest. Take my yolk upon you and learn of me from I meek and lowly. Is he saying just come and give all things to me and all things will be okay? No. See, today we like to hear a feel good message. We want to hear about love, but we slide away from service. And if we know anything about our savior, our savior came to serve man at the at get 70. He says, I father, not my will, but die will be done. When his parents were looking for him, he said, don't you know, don't you know? Why are you looking for me? I'm supposed to be about my father's business. Let's look at the word come. I want to take you into the strong concordance for a second. If you go into the concordance, the word come comes from a, it comes from a Greek, a Greek word that's called <unk>. And and the word means to come hither. It is an interjection of come. Now, it is also imperative of direction. It doesn't mean to just come and stay here. It means come and follow. It means follow in the direction that I am going. It's not come here and let's kick it. It's come and let's go. It is a action word to come and follow. So when Jesus says, come unto me, he is saying, imperatively, follow me Now he says, come unto, you know one of my, one of the teachers that one of my favorite teachers, which just happened to be Sister Louis Torres sister Carol Torres, she taught us that it is not just important to know the scriptures, to understand the scriptures. She says, you must know why God used certain words so you can understand what God mean. And I never thought of that before when I was reading the Bible. I would just read the Bible and try to get to know the words and the meaning. But as I learned that from her and I understood that God used particular words for a particular purpose. And then when you start trying to find out what is God's purpose for this word, why did he say come? Why did he say unto? Why didn't he just say, come here. And when you start reading the Bible trying to learn, why did God say that? It opens up a whole new rim of understanding of the word of God. When I read this scripture, I used to like everyone think that hey, this scripture is about giving God my burdens and I'm okay. I will have rest. When I learned to study the Bible as I was taught here at Mission College, that scripture became alive to me and it became the Gospel Commission. When the word unto that is used here, the word unto means come to the advantage of unto means come to the advantage of so God is telling us, follow unto the advantage of you and him. So if he's not just saying follow, he's saying follow to the advantage of you and him. And what is the advantage of you? Salvation. What is the advantage of God furthering the kingdom souls? So how do you follow unto the advantage of by winning souls to Christ? In in the Jewish educational system, there is three steps to a Jewish educational system. The first step is called be sufferer. And in be sufferer, it is from the age of six to 10 years old that you study, the next step is be taun. And in be ta mu, you study from the age of 10 to 14. After be taun, you go into be Mira if you were good enough. Let me, let me take you into some of this, some of this studies, by the time a child was 13 to 14 years old, that child knew the Bible. Back to front verse for verse letter for letter. They spent their whole life from six years old to 14 years old studying the Bible. By the time they were 14, they knew everything about the Bible. Well, let's go back. Let's go back to the beginning. And in the beginning what would happen is the rabbi would walk into a town and as he gets into the town, he would proclaim that he is here. And it was, it was a huge thing for the rabbi to proclaim that he was here and people would flock to this rabbi and they would want to be accepted by this rabbi. And there's a saying in the Hebrew, in in the Greek culture, and excuse me, in Jewish culture that says, made a dust of the rabbi be upon you. And the reason that they used that phrase is because when you see a rabbi walk into a town or a village, you would see someone walking behind him like just basically shuffling because they were so close behind him that they couldn't even take their own steps. And if the rabbi turned this way, they turned this way. If the rabbi bent over to pick up a rock, they bent over to pick up a rock. Whatever the rabbi did, they did. They were called taine. Tamu, dean is a word that means disciple. And so everyone wanted to be a tamu dean of the Rabbi. And they will go when the rabbi gets into the town and he would say, look, you come and study. And they will go and they will study from six to 10 years old. And then from 10 to 14, they will continue their studies. At the age of 14, the rabbi will now go and say, you, you and you answer this question. And he would see who would answer the question. The wisest who had the quickest answer, who had the better answer. And out of those that answered best, he would say to him, Lici, Aari, come and follow me. Be my taine. And that person would become taine to the rabbi in order to become a rabbi himself. One day they said, let the dust of the rabbi be upon you because the roads in those times were so dusty and they followed so closely that all of the dust from the rabbi was upon them. And it was a blessing in their culture to be dusted by the rabbi. You knew you were following your rabbi properly if you were covered with dust. Well, what happened to those who wasn't chosen from six to 14 years old? They gave their whole life to study it. And the rabbi would say to them, he would say, look, we understand that you sacrificed your life. We understand that you gave up family and friends and work and everything for this task of becoming taine. How? However, you will never be taine. Go back to your village, go back to your families. Go be a fisherman. Go be a carpenter. Go be something else and have babies. And pray that your babies one day will become taine. They would leave heartbroken because their whole life from six to 10 years old has been about becoming a taine. The one who was chosen to be ta modine was glorified. Everyone admired him. And one day he would become a rabbi. Well, let me ask you this question. What did, what was Jesus' occupation? I heard carpenter, anyone else. He was a rabbi. If we go to the scriptures, you will notice in the Bible that Jesus was called a rabbi. 41 times He was called a, let me rephrase that. Jesus was called a rabbi. 13 times 41 times. He was called a teacher. He was only called a carpenter in the Bible one time in March six, mark six, three. So what was Jesus' occupation? Teacher. He was a rabbi. He was a teacher. And if we go to the scripture in Matthews and he's saying, come follow me onto the advantage of, he is telling us that we can be his tamu dean. He is telling us, leechy Aari, come and be my disciple. The question is, are you following your rabbi so closely that the dust of the rabbi is upon you? Are you so serious about this task of being taine, that you mimic the Rabbi in everything that he does when the rabbi passed through your job, when the rabbi passed through your home, when the rabbi passed through your outing or you mimicking the actions of the rabbi, or you so closely knit behind the rabbi that you will be called taine? The difference with the world and with Christ is Christ calls all of us to leche, aari come and be my disciple. There is no quiz, there is no better answer. There is just the call. We go back to the scriptures in match 11 and he says, come unto me all ye. You see again, we look at the words and we see mere words. And when you look at the word all In their, in their language, all is pos. And I went to look up this word 748 times all means all things 170 times. It means every 41 times it means men. Why is that important? Because if I were to ask you, who is Christ speaking to when he says, come on to me all, what would you say? All men. But he only means men 41 times 170 times. He means everything. 748 times. He means all things follow to the advantage of you and me. All, everything is everything we have surrendered to Christ. Is my vehicle surrendered to the use of Jesus? Is my home surrendered to the use of Christ? Is my speech reflecting the language of Jesus? Is my dress showing the love of Christ, the humility of Jesus? Do I pass on the highway? We live in dangerous times, but are we connected so much with Christ, following so closely? Every time Christ went into a village, he never left without ministering to the needs of others. Never, ever. He didn't just preach, he ministered to their needs. Have I through my lifetime, missed the ministering of the needs of someone? Do I go through my job and not recognize the look on my coworker's face and see distress and say, can I pray with you? Or am I worried about being fired? Cause I asked to pray, am I afraid to leave my Bible on my desk so someone who might be distressed can see the Bible and say, can I talk to you? Is my conversation in my conduct such that someone can say, I, I, I I need to talk my brother when I'm driving down and I need this one. I don't know how to keep my foot off the pedal. I am slowly learning. Lord, help me to slow down. I have a heavy foot, but it's not about how fast I drive when I go down the road of life, is there ever a situation where someone is on the side of the road stranded and I say, Lord, let me be a light. Or the Holy Spirit is guiding you and urging you to help someone. And while this is such dangerous times, you just can't do that anymore. Is our life surrendered to the service of others? As we go on into the scripture, it tells us, come on to me all ye that labor. You know, I I I found that to be interesting. He says, come If you were laboring. So if I'm, if if I'm tired, I need to run to Jesus. If, if, if, if, if, if I'm weary, I need to run to Jesus. And I'm, and I was reading the scripture, and again, I went to look up this and it, it, the definition of laden is to be heavy laden, to place a burden and a load upon on one of the things that the rabbis did in the Jewish culture was called place a yoke upon you. The yolk that the rabbi would place upon you is when a rabbi taught. They taught you the way they thought they thought. They taught you their understanding of the scriptures. There was no one rabbi whose understanding or whose teachings was the same. And you were known by the rabbi who you were a ta modine too. They wanted you to do things exactly the way they did it and understand the way they understand. And they call that their yolk. And they place their yolk upon you. So I I I I, as I was studying, I went and I was trying to understand heavy laden and take my yolk. And as I continued reading and studying, It says, laboring, as we know is physical. You can't labor sitting at home. You can't labor in front of the television. You can't labor at the amusement part. You have to labor out in the fields. We are to be laboring for the benefit of the kingdom in the fields. And I, I went to looking at the different kinds of labor and I was like, well, what is the difference in laboring for Christ and laboring in the world? They're both active. What is the difference? Says Christ speaks to us about two specific kinds of physical activity. There's the activity of the world and there's the activity of God. This is separated by denoting heavy laden. We see the difference in Christ's labor because he's calling us and giving us a directive to partake with him in winning souls for the kingdom. What labor are we supposed to be doing? Well, I'm, I'm doing my labor because I work. I, I I support my family. I support the church. I give to all the different ministries. I'm I'm, I'm laboring. Are you laboring for the kingdom? It's a God confirmed his word in his word in Isaiah 40 31. He says, they that wait upon the Lord shall what? Renew their strength. Now let me ask you a question. If I'm waiting, am I standing still? I was like, you we're supposed to be laboring for the Lord, but then it says, let's wait. How do we labor and wait? So I looked up the word wait. And when I looked up the word wait, the word wait means to be actively looking and working for something. So you take a precept upon precept, line upon line. If I am to day that wait upon the Lord so they that or laboring for Christ shall renew their strength, our strength is renewed by working for Jesus. Our strength is not renewed by resting. It is in the labor of working for Christ that we are strengthened. And one of the other definitions that came from the word late from the word weight was to look eagerly for we are not just supposed to be standing by, we're supposed to be working and looking eagerly for let, how eager are you for Christ to come? Is it more important that next month I'm getting married and Lord, can you wait till then? Is it I I I would like to see my child graduate from high school. Is it that let me finish college. How eagerly are we awaiting and looking for the come in of Jesus? Third John 1 21 third John, 1 21, third John, chapter 1 21. God tells us what he wants for us. He says he wants that above all things we may prosper and be in good health. He wants that we may prosper and be in good health. I'm sorry, third I I Third John one, two, excuse me. I said 21 and I, and I know people are still looking for 21. Third John one, chapter two. He says, God says that he wants that we may prosper and be in good health. Now what things does he want us to be in good health in? Someone said it already. How many things All? So if we're to be in good health in all things, is that just physically? Is he talking about being in mental, emotional, financial and physical good health? Amen Is the things that we have supposed to be in good keeping, that we may glorify God. Jesus is calling us to be taine. He has given us the word leche. Aari, come and be my disciples. The question is, will the dust of the rabbi be upon you? Will you follow so closely that it would be no doubt that you or taine to bet Jesus? Rabbi Jesus is your life in order. I find myself as I mentioned this and say this prick, because he's speaking to me, he's speaking to you, he's speaking to us all here. And the question is, is your life in order? Are you following so closely that we know whose rabbi you belong to as the bus was coming down the hill, no brakes, 50 children. What is this bus driver to do? He needs to save the children. How can he save the children? And as he winds down, he kind of realizes I know where I'm at. And he prays and he realizes I, there's a h, there's a, there's a hill coming up and I can, I can go up that hill and slow the bus down and save the children. Instantly a prayer has been answered as he comes round and down and he sees the gate that he has to go through, crash through the gate, go up the hill, slow the bus down. He sees something at the gate and there's a child there, but he has 50 children on the bus. That's their lives are in peril. What should he do? So he bursts through the gate, instantly killing the child and saving the 50 children. At this time, the news and the police and the medical and everyone is there and they're talking about him as a hero and they can't find him. Someone says, where is he? Doesn't he know he's a hero? Then he doesn't. He know he saved these children. They go around the side of the bus and he's at the back of the bus weeping. Someone says, what is wrong with him? Look At, I mean, they're hailing him as a hero. He's saved all these children. What is wrong with him? Isn't he appreciative? Isn't he thankful to God? And someone says, no, you don't understand. The gate that he crashed through is his gate and the child was his son. Are we willing to give up everything that is dear to us to save the lives of those who need Jesus? God gave up his only begotten son for you and I and that awakened hope for humanity. If we are to follow after Christ, Christ came so we might see the hope of glory and he awakened hope in us again. If we are following after our rabbi, if we are modine and we've answered the call, Leia Aari, will you surrender all things of self to save the souls of others? Will you go and follow and let the dust of the rabbi be upon you? Jesus tells us, come unto me all that labor and our heavy laden come to the advantage of the call is very simple. Are you covered in dust today? Have your life, your possessions, your conduct, your character been covered in the dust of Jesus? Are you following after your rabbi? And if you are, praise God. If you are not and you would like to make a commitment to follow after Jesus, as the girls begin to sing, I would like you to close your eyes. This is not about looking at your neighbor and seeing what's going on. This is about a call from Christ to you And.

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OYC 2010 Plenary Sessions

Walk in the Hope of the Commission

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Parent Conference

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Other Teachings in Series

The Good News Gospel

New Wine, Old Bottles

Follow-Through

The Fruit of the Spirit: The Christian Character

Rejects of Society - Evangelists?

Walk in the Hope of the Commission

Sound Doctrine