We have with us today A premier missiologist, not just in the assemblies of God, but really in all of Christianity. Dick Brogdon is a good friend of ours. He and our friend Jennifer, his wife, have been planting churches in a Muslim context since 1992. They have gone to some of the hardest, most difficult, most dangerous places in the world planting the church. And I was wondering.
Why is he here today? And the Spirit of God spoke to me and said, Jeff, with all the great stuff y'all have going on. You got women's conferences, the third Saturday every month. We have a huge prayer meeting here with all the stuff y'all have going on. Chad, it's very easy to forget the mission I've given to this church, which is to go into all the world and win as many people to Jesus Christ as possible.
The sermon you're about to hear. For those of you who may not be familiar with Cross Assembly, you've just started visiting here. The sermon you're about to hear It's amazing. It encapsulates everything that cross assembly is about. A focus on Jesus.
Global missions. The Pentecostal power of the Holy Spirit. What you're about to hear is probably the best summary I've ever heard, present company included, preached on who cross assembly is and what God has called us to do.
So, church, can you welcome my friend and yours, Dick Brogdon? Dick, come on up here, brother. Amen, amen, thank you, good morning. If you have your cell phone, would you take it out? There's a QR code that you'll see on the screen.
If you would like to get a prayer letter from Jennifer and myself that will help you pray for the unreached and for the Arab world, you can just give us your name and email on that. I'm going to ask you also to stand in honor of God's word. Would you stand as I read from John chapter 15? The text will be on the screen, or you can turn in your Bible to John chapter 15. And I'm going to read from verse 11 through verse 16.
These things I have spoken to you that my joy. may remain in you. And that your joy Maybe full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants. For a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends. For all things that I heard from my Father I have made known to you.
You did not choose me? But I chose you and appointed you that you should go, and bear fruit. And that your fruit should remain. that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give you This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.
The day after Jesus spoke these words, he would die on a cruel cross for the sins of the world.
Some contend in our day that we spend too much energy, money, personnel, resources on the Great Commission way out there making disciples of the nations, the peoples of the world. And we don't spend enough time or energy or attention on the great commandments: love God and love your neighbor here at home. I would simply say that the dichotomy is ridiculous. That according to Jesus Good neighbors are actually Samaritans, those who have a different religion, a different culture, a different neighborhood, a different perspective, and that the way we love God is by loving Muslims, Hindus. Buddhists, animus, Secularists and atheists, wherever they are found on God's globe, especially where they are not.
Yeah. Loved. If you love Jesus, the text says you will obey his commands. And his commands to love him and to love our neighbors and to make disciples of the nations, they cannot be separated. Our love For making disciples of all the nations is how we love God.
and how we love our Our neighbors. If you remember nothing else from this morning, would you remember this? fulfilling the great commission. is how We obey the great commandments. There are over 8 billion people in the world today.
Those billions are collected in what we call people groups, fifteen thousand people groups. A people group has its own religion, has its own culture, has its own language and has its own geography. Of those 15,000 people groups, 7,000 are what we call unreached. That means, quantitatively, they have less than two believers out of a hundred. And qualitatively, it means the believers are so few They cannot yet reach their own people without catalytic outside help, which means missionary presence.
Now of those 7,000 unreached people groups About 4,788. are what we call frontier peoples. This means they have one believer or less for every thousand people. And of those frontier peoples, as we dial in at the core of their urgency, There are 2,000 people groups that are unengaged. This means there's no church, there's no known disciples, there's no missionaries, there's no Bible available, there's no believers or very few that we know of.
Two thousand years after the resurrection. We have more than 2,000 people groups that don't have one believer, one church. No missionary activity, no gospel access amongst them. And I believe Jesus wants us together. to do something.
about that.
So let's return to our text. Picking it up in verse 14. You are my friends. If You do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you doulos, servants.
for a servant does not know what his master is doing, But I have called you Philos, friends. For all things that I heard from my father I have made known to you. Do you know this song? I don't know if we sing it much anymore. I am a friend of God.
I am a friend of God. I am a friend of God. He calls me friend. I have a missionary colleague. He was traveling in a remote mountain village in Asia.
Very hospitable people, they wanted to welcome him, so they tried to sing a song in English. They were enthusiastic, but their language wasn't quite up to par because this is what they sang: I am afraid of God. I am afraid of God. I am afraid of God. He calls me Fred.
Ha ha ha.
Well, the Lord does not call you Fred this morning. He calls you Friend. My son asked me to watch a movie with him.
Some weeks ago, and I was excited. I was thinking Gladiator or some kind of guy movie, but he said, Yeah, dad, there's this great movie about St. John the Beloved on the island of Patmos. I was like, This is gonna be really boring, but it's my son, so I said, Great, let's watch this movie. And it's called St.
John in Exile. It's a one-man film. And this man, this actor, plays the role of John the Beloved as an old man telling the story of how he first met Jesus. And the actor in that film says these words. From the first moment I saw him, Jesus, I said, He needs a friend.
And that might sound strange to you, but I felt that I could be that friend. And that is exactly The way it turned out. I don't know if this has happened to you, but Have you ever been watching a movie and something arrests your heart, your attention, you don't really watch the rest of the movie because you're ruminating on what you just saw? When when the actor said that, my mind exploded. How dare he put those words in the mouth of John?
How dare we think that God needs anything, that Jesus needs a friend? And ever since I saw that movie, I've been reflecting on what does it mean to be God's friend from the receiving perspective? Which is significantly different from the giving perspective. And so, how, instead of just receiving, what a friend we have in Jesus. all our toils and griefs and sins to bear.
What does it mean not to receive friendship from him, but to give it to him? How can I be A friend To Jesus. And why this messed with me was theologically that God was so satisfied before any humans were created. God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit in triune fellowship did not need Adam to be fulfilled. They were completely content.
The Trinity was completely satisfied and fulfilled. He wasn't lonely, He didn't need us to be completed. And yet, if. If flesh and blood, flawed and fearful Abraham could be his friend, if human, agitated, stuttering Moses could speak with him face to face, if Enoch could walk with him, if Jacob could wrestle with him, wonder of wonders without understanding how all of it works, could it be that the God who needs nothing, Needs Me. To be his friend.
And what does it mean to To be a friend. To Jesus.
So I want to walk through what I think that means. Framing it In the way that we can understand in terms of human relationships, what do humans need as friends? We need encouragement.
So I decided I'm going to encourage Jesus. who is of course fully God and fully man. When I see something beautiful, a mountain or a sunset, an ocean, I've started to frame my praise as encouragement. In Mombasa, Kenya, recently I was walking with some friends past this huge mango tree, and it was just fully formed and delightful. And so I said, Good job, Jesus.
You did a good job making that tree. When I see the wonderful works of his creation, including people. I want to encourage Jesus that he did a good job. Chad Harvey. When God made Chad Harvey, he did a good job, didn't he?
He broke the mold when he made Chad Harvey. And I want to say, good job, Jesus. You did a good job when you made Chad Harvey. And what would it be like if from all around the world, for things small and things large, the friends of Jesus all day long would say, good job, Jesus. You did a good job when you created the earth.
When you made men and women, when you gave us the Holy Spirit, when you revealed the scriptures, when you showered love on us. Good job, Jesus. Jesus, you're doing a good job as the king of the universe. We can encourage Jesus. It's one way we can be as friend.
I've said that friends defend one another. And I've decided that if Jesus is my friend, I'm going to defend him. When a twisted world slanders him, Or when a confused church Misrepresents him. I'm going to stand up and I'm going to say with a loud voice, that's not Jesus. No, he doesn't carry on that way.
That's just flesh and blood, like you and me, somehow gone astray. But I know him and I walk with him and I understand him and he's good and he's true and he's faithful and he's loving and he's merciful and he's holy. I know him. Don't you dare slander my Jesus. Don't you dare misrepresent him.
I know what he's like and he is good. If you're his friend. Friends don't stay silent when their friends are slandered. They speak up and say no Don't say that. I know him.
And he's good. I'm gonna defend. My friend Jesus. Human friends. Stand with one another.
and difficult, shameful. Embarrassing times.
Some of you might remember Jackie Robinson, he broke the color baseball in Color Barry and Baseball. And as an African American, he was abused and vilified. In a particularly low moment for Jackie, Await. Baseball player named Pee Wee Reese jogged over to him on the diamond, stood next to him. and put his arm around his shoulder.
I want to do that for Jesus. When the world scorns him When the world is embarrassed about him, When the world rejects him, When the world abuses him, I want to run over to the nations. put my arm around Jesus and defiantly declare, I'm with him. I am my beloved's, and he is mine. And if you reject him, you reject me.
And if you're ashamed of him, be ashamed of me. And if you don't want to be with him, then you don't want to be with me. Because he's my friend. And I stand and I fall and I crucified and I rise with him. I'm with him, so don't disassociate him from me.
Because I I'm gonna stand. with my friend. whatever happens. Human friends need consolation. We know that some things from the text make Jesus cry.
He's not willing for any to perish. We know that racism breaks his heart. trafficking, poverty, injustice, any form of abuse. Death and sorrow and the refusal of his offered salvation made him weep, for the widow, for the mother, over Jerusalem.
So if I'm the friend of Jesus, I'm going to cry over the things that make him cry. I will be moved by what moves him. I will not be unmoved by 3.9 billion people that are unreached. I will weep over 7,000 people groups that are unreached. I will weep over 2,000 people groups that these two millennium after the resurrection don't have one believer, one church, or one missionary.
That's going to bother me. Because it bothers my friend Jesus. I'm going to enter in. to that unsettledness. With my friend.
Which leads me to perhaps the most important aspect of human friendship, And that is Trust. Bob and Cindy Stock. our friends great friends to Jennifer and I, and what makes them great friends amongst other things. is that we can trust them to do whatever we ask them. We know that that we can take what's most important to us and put it in their hands.
And if they can possibly do it, They will do it quickly. and they will do it with excellence. They're faithful friends because we can trust them. with what is most vital to us. And beloved, This is the most important way.
that we can befriend Jesus. We can steward The trust that He has given us. Astoundingly, Shockingly Mysteriously Jesus has trusted to us What is most important to his heart. He didn't give it to angels. He didn't give it to armies.
He didn't give it to banks or universities. or the United Nations. He didn't give it to programmes or projects or presidents. He couldn't trust them with it. But he trusted us.
That for which he bled For which he was born, lived, suffered, died, buried, raised, ascended, and that for which he will come again to rule over in glory. The goal of the cross, the purpose of history, he has put in our hands. Jesus has trusted us. with the evangelization of his world. He put that in our hands.
Because we're his friends. And friends can trust one another. Isn't that staggering? Jesus has trusted you With the evangelization. of his world.
He put it in the hands of his people. He put it in the hands. of his church. And this is why we exist. to honor that trust.
I'd like you. To look at verse 16. You did not choose me. But I chose you. and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.
and that your fruit should remain. that whatever you ask the Father In my name, He may give you. Who me, you might be thinking? Trusted by Jesus to evangelize his world. Appointed to bear fruit amongst the nations, who me Chosen to be a missionary to the unreached, appointed to bring that first disciple from a people group in 2,000 years.
Me, God's ambassador, me, God's church planter, me, used to plant the first church in the Amazon basin or the mountains of the Himalayas, or the deserts of Arabia, or the cities of North Korea. Me, I am weak, I am foolish, I am powerless, I'm sinful, I'm too young, I'm too old, I'm too tired, I'm too afraid, I'm too broke, I'm too broken. How could God ever use me? to evangelize His world.
Well, the scripture through Paul makes it very, very simple for us. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world. to put to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world. to put to shame the things which are mighty.
that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him You are in Christ Jesus. Christ, the The power of God. And Christ The wisdom of God. Andrew Murray puts it this way, deep in the inmost recess of his being, hidden and unfelt, every child of God has the mighty Spirit of God.
Let us not dare to say, oh no, I could never be a missionary. Because if God Almighty, by his Spirit, dwells in you, God omnipotent, God of angel armies, if he lives inside of you, there is nothing that you cannot do in the power of the Holy Spirit. God can do anything through the vessel that is weak and lowly. Anything. Including evangelize.
The world.
Well, how does he do that? Maybe like the young and weak and innocent. Virgin Mary, you would say, How can this be? Since I do not know, And the answer for her is the answer for us with God. Nothing.
is impossible and here's how it plays out. Let's look first at Acts chapter 4, verse 13. Peter and John had been used by God to heal a lame man. It caused a stir, a crowd gathered, an inquisition followed. And the persecuting authorities are looking into this and asking themselves.
How did they just do that? They're simpletons from Galilee. How did that just happen?
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived That they were uneducated and untrained men They marvelled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. The Greek word for uneducated is a grammatos. Without grammar. And the word for untrained is idiotis.
You recognize that word? Idiots. Jesus, in other words, has put his great commission. Into the hands. of uneducated idiots.
When the authorities saw that Peter and John were uneducated idiots, they didn't have good grammar. They could hardly even speak well, and yet these mighty things happened that the power of God was flowing through them. The only conclusion they could make was, oh. They've been with Jesus. Friends of Jesus.
Spend a lot of time with him. And that's why he can trust them to evangelize his world. You feel like an idiot? Do you feel like you're without grammar? One who can't even speak English properly, let alone learn Chinese or Arabic or Somali or Estonian.
Doesn't matter. As long as you spend time With Jesus. How do we steward the trust that he has put in us to evangelize his world.
Well, first of all, We spend a lot of time with him. Secondly, Let's look back at history to Azusa Street. This church is part of a fellowship called the Assemblies of God, which was started out of a revival at the turn of the last century in a little small mission in Los Angeles. And now we have grown by God's grace. We are almost 89 million people worldwide.
We have almost Half a million churches, over 450,000 churches scattered across God's earth.
Now we are very, very large, but that's not how the Pentecostal movement started. We started very, very small and very, very humble. Frank Bartleman was an eyewitness, and this is what he wrote about how it all began. 312 Azusa Street. Here they had rented an old frame building in the center of the city.
Now a long time out of use for meetings. It had become a receptacle. For old lumber, plaster. They had cleared space enough in the surrounding dirt and debris to lay some planks on top of empty nail kegs. With seats enough for possibly thirty people, these were arranged in a square facing one another.
We found about a dozen saints there, some white, Some coloured. Brother Seymour, an African American, was in charge. The color line was washed away. In the blood. Brother Seymour generally sat behind two empty shoeboxes, one on top of the other.
He usually kept his set his head inside the top one during the meeting in prayer. There was no pride there. We only recognized God. All were equal. No flesh might glory in his presence He could not use the self opinionated, All came down in humility together.
At his feet. How did we get to be 89 million worldwide? 450,000 churches. The colour line was washed away. There was no pride there.
He could not use the self opinionated. But we got down on our knees. Twelve of us Black and white. Put her head in a shoe box. And prayed.
And Bartleman went on to note that They had expected God to use their strength. But instead God did not baptize their strength. But their weakness. Agramatos. Without grammar.
Idiotes. Not very smart. Down on our knees. God baptizes our weakness. Because He trusts us.
to change the world. But not in our acumen, not in our intelligence, not in our strength. But in his Thirdly, let's look to Jesus. I have a friend in China. He was meeting with some Chinese elders.
all of whom had been persecuted, all of whom had been to prison for multiple years. And he was asking them to share what they learned and about their experiences. And it took two hours, and each of them went around the room, and they each shared what had been. revealed to them through suffering, all except the eldest. And he had been in prison the longest and suffered the most.
So as that evening drew to a close, My colleague looked at him and said, Uncle, You've suffered the most. Yet you sit silent. How did you endure such pain? And such loss For so long. And that old man simply looked up to heaven and asked with reverence, Is he not worthy?
Jesus. has trusted you. His friend. To evangelize his world. And is he not worthy of that?
Whatever it will cost us. Livingston, the famous missionary to Africa, said, for my own part. I have never ceased to rejoice. that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa.
Away with the word sacrifice. Say rather, It is a privilege. To be a missionary, my wife and I now have served for over 33 years. is the very best job in the world. It's the very best.
And Jesus is calling some of you. To do that. Away with the word sacrifice. Say rather. It is a privilege.
In the mountains of Asia, A large group from a village received the gospel message with joy. and gave their hearts to Christ. They realize that the gospel is never centered on us and our family and our community. But the gospel is ever pressing the boundaries of those who've never heard. And so even in that remote mountain village where the gospel had come for the first time, they said, we have to take the gospel to the neighboring country, down into a valley where there's all these villages, and we're going to walk out of the mountains and take the gospel to them.
It took him two months. Because they stopped at every village along the way and they shared the gospel that they received.
Some people would get saved, so they'd start a little church, leave one of the band with them, and keep walking on. And in every village, they left somebody and somebody joined them.
So the band stayed about the same size as for two months. They descended out of the mountains down to a neighboring country into the valley. When they entered the valley, An old man came running up to them, so excited, He said, I have been waiting for you. I saw in a dream that a group of people would descend from the mountains and they would tell us how our sins could be forgiven and how we could have eternal life. And so as I've been waiting, I've been going up and down this valley telling all the villages there's hope coming.
They're going to tell us how sins can be forgiven. They're going to tell us how we can have eternal life.
So come with me. I know the villages that are open. I know the ones that are closed and we'll go right to the villages that are open. And the band was so elated, but they said, but hold on a second. You said you've been waiting for us.
that you saw that would come in a dream. How long have you been waiting? And the old man became sober. And he said sadly, Oh, I had that dream. Sixty-two years ago.
I have been waiting for you. For sixty Two. Years. We are the friends of Jesus. If we do what He's commanded us.
Yes, He's commanded us to love Him. Yes, He's commanded us to love our neighbors. And yes, he's commanded us to make disciples of all the nations of the world. They cannot be divided. And we cannot wait.
Sixty-two years. to honor that trust. And the world. The perishing world. Cannot wait.
62 years. For you. to be a friend. of Jesus. You close your eyes.
and bow your heads. I want to ask you in this moment of prayer as Pastor Chad will come and lead us to make two applications. Number one. When you leave this church and you're processing through the next few days of this week, Friendship is unique. What does it mean for you?
to be a friend. to Jesus. What does that look like? You've received friendship from him probably all of your life, which is so sweet. How do you give friendship to Jesus?
What does that look like for you? And secondly, What will you give to Jesus because He's your friend. of your prayers. For the lost. Of your finances.
For missions. And is Jesus asking you? to enter in. to the very best job in the world. and to find such joy in leaving home.
and family.
So that others can become his friends as well. Church, I told you. Everything that we're about. It's all about. Jesus Jesus, global missions, field of the Holy Spirit, everything you've just heard right there.
This is what we're about. We believe Jesus is coming back soon. We believe Jesus is the only way to salvation. We believe Jesus has empowered us with His Holy Spirit to take the gospel around the world.
Now, look, if you're interested. in missions or you feel like God may be calling you into full-time global missions. God spoke to us a couple years ago. At that time, we were running 2,000 and said, tithe your church into global missions. 200 people into global missions.
I think we're at 50-something right now. If you feel like God may be calling you, A court. The mark of the beast. These things creep me out, but at any rate, do the little QR code, and you'll get some information. We also have a missions desk out there, missions table.
Go by and stop by the missions table if you want more information about missions. But church, honestly? When people tell me Christianity is boring, I say this is a lot of things, but it ain't boring. To go out into this dark and dying world and push back the kingdom of darkness, take down demons, lead people to the Lord Jesus Christ, lead people from death into eternal life. Man, how can that be boring?
And so I want to just stand right now, friends of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to do what I do every single Sunday. Commission you Not to just go out there and live life. Puncher clock at work. Get a paycheck.
Go home. Go to sleep, start the whole thing up the next day. That's not what God has called you to do. That is your part-time job. Your full-time job is to be warriors for the Lord Jesus Christ.
As I want you to raise your hands and receive this blessing from the Lord as we send you out to change this world for the Lord Jesus Christ. Y'all ready for it? Cazakh. Bear mots. I'll tell a rope the autocat.
Chi Emecha Adonai Elehecha Beho A Sheh Telech. Which is Hebrew 4, church. Y'all be bold. You be strong You don't be afraid and you don't be intimidated by anything. Why?
Because your best friend. Jesus Christ is going to be with you everywhere you go this week as you impact this world. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen and amen. God bless you, beloved.
Let's go change this world for the Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you.
