Building Kingdom Disciples | Special Guest Dr. Tony Evans

Hey there, thanks for listening to the great glory podcast, a ministry supported by harvest partners on Greg Laurie encouraging you if you want to find out more about harvest ministries.

To learn more about how to become a harvest partner, just go to harvest.org. I'm happy to be here with my son Anthony Junior and harvest good to be ready. You called me and asked about believed in free speech. I said yes. He said come give one so so I'm delighted to be able to be here. I have followed ministry of your pastor for many years. His love for people. His love for the Lord and his love for the unreached new is harvest events and I had number number of them in Dallas where I administer and we have appreciated his work here locally, and his work nationally. So thank you for allowing me to be part of this wonderful wonderful congregation. As you continue to serve the Lord Christ in these challenging days. For many years I served as chaplain of the Dallas Cowboys when they were winning and my son played a bite my younger son Jonathan played for Yale University and then had a short stint in the NFL and has taken over my role as chaplain of the cowboys and as you know, when a team when a game is being played three teams will hit the field there will be the home team there will be a visiting team which means there will be a three hour conflict will be a three hour conflict between these two teams because they are going to clash because I going in two different directions one have a goal this way, another has a goal that way three hours they going to clash and no amount of argument will make them get along because by the nature of the gridiron conflict is inevitable in the middle of this conflict, in the middle of this gridiron battle 13 was introduced. This is the team of officials that several officials at an NFL game whose job it is to manage the mess to be in the middle of the conflict without becoming a part of the conflict. These seven representatives do not belong to the home team, nor do they belong to the visiting team that belong to a whole another kingdom you see the beautiful offices located at 345 Park Ave. in New York and what they do is they dispense to all 32 teams to all the games that kingdom representatives.

These representatives are situated on the field but they get their instructions from 345 Park Ave., so they get instructions from up there for the decisions they make.

Down here in the middle of the battle that is being played out on the grid on each official has been handed a book. This book is the governing guidelines by which all decisions are to be made on the field of play that personal opinions must be subject to that book. Their perspectives must adjust to that book, regardless of how they feel about this team or that team they have got to make all of the decisions predicated on what is written in the book from the kingdom up there in the chaos down here now they understand that their presence on the field is not part of a popularity contest.

They understand sometimes they go to be booed because one of the teams benefits against the hometown teams the crowd is going to build them.

They understand if it's for the home team with the home crowd there going to be cheered, but that is a nonrelevant issue for them because they're not therefore popularity contest. They're there to represent the kingdom of New York in the chaos of the field of play as distinct representatives of the NFL.

They are always distinguishable. You never have to guess about the referee because they have black and white jerseys, or they don't do on the jerseys of this team. They don't daunt the jerseys of that team, because they are independent of both teams because they represent neither team. They represent another order they represent another kingdom.

We have a problem today in our culture that is we have God's representative joining cultural teams. Some of join the Democratic team.

Others enjoy the Republican teams suburb joined the black team others and join the white teams of enjoying the rich teams I was enjoying the poor team and they have brought joy teams and have less loss. The distinction that they were created and rebirth to provide the chaos of the culture. What we are missing today is what I call the book and what I want to challenge you today were missing kingdom disciples were missing men and women who do not fully understand what it means to be a full-time follower of Christ and not a part-time Christian men and women who have refused or failed to distinguish themselves in the chaos of the conflicts on the field of play that dominate the gridiron of the culture in which we find ourselves. Jesus called the meeting it was the only meeting he called between the time of his resurrection and the time of his ascension.

He had a number of meetings but only one was called prior to his ascending after he rose you know it as the great commission. I know that is a passion of your pastor and of this ministry.

There are five commissions in the New Testament Matthew Mark Luke John acts all of them have a commissioning by the risen Christ, but Matthew 28 calls it recalled the great commission because it uses a term that none of the other commissions use the Greek word is not the case or disciple. That's why it's called the great commission free groups are invited to this meeting we find out in verse 16 that the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated so I was a planned meeting designated so we have 11 disciples that is minus Judas, who attend the meeting. The second group that attends the meeting were told in first Corinthians 15 was 500 brother, so that is either 511 or 489, depending upon whether the 11 a part of the 500 so there is a large group that attends the meeting.

There is a far group invited to the meeting because verse 20 says hello. I will be with you until the end of the age.

While the age is not yet ended. So you and I are invited to the meeting. So why don't we mosey on up the hill and see what this meeting is all about. Since we been invited to the meeting to find out what the risen Lord expects of us in his physical absence in the myths about physical presence and his work through us.

They start off with a worship service because it says when they saw him they worshiped him, and so they started out like you. It started out today in worship. Worship is the recognition of God for who he is what he is done. What we are trusting him to do so.

They were worshiping, but we also told that some were doubtful. So while everybody's in church so to speak.

Somewhere in church with?'s they they were fully convinced and perhaps you're one of those here today who you are in worship, which is not yet fully convinced you got questions about how real is this Jesus thing. How powerful is this biblical proclamation. How strong is this community of believers, especially in light of all that was seen with the chaos and the culture so they were there they were there with questions that had not yet been answered.

After the singing of the praying of the worship service is top of the profiteering. On this occasion Jesus man's the podium after they worship becomes and he says in verse 18 of Matthew 28.

All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. The risen Christ steps before his three audiences says I'm in charge now all authority belongs to me in heaven up there and on earth down here I'm in charge in eternity economic charge in time I'm in charge in heaven and I'm in charge in history. I'm in charge in the suite by-and-by and I'm in charge of the nasty human. He says I'm in charge now the word he uses for authority is an interesting one.

The dominant word in the New Testament for authority is due to mess where we get our English word dynamite from, that's not the word he uses here uses the Greek word X accuracy is a little different than duelists duelists that expression of explosive power, but it goes he has a different nuance to it in a football game you have players who are young, strong and fast they have duelists they have power, but you have referees who are slow and fat and old, they do not have much they can be defeated by the duelists of the players because the rafts do not have that inmate ability to compete with them but what the residue have is a cozy.

The players could knock you down. The reps can put you out because what they carry is kingdom authority echoes he has the dual with the rightful use of power, not the duty must the execution upon the players had beautiful but the rafts have a yellow flag and was they have a go see you and you put your hands on the you will be judged by the kingdom of that because you mess with legitimate authority. Jesus says I'm in charge now. Anything that contradicts me is illegitimate because I carry legitimate authority. Satan has due to mess.

I have a cozy. I have legitimate authorized authority and major-league issues. His instruction he says I want you to make disciples. I want you to make disciples a legitimate church members you make disciples in the Greek text. It is not indicative is a command now to request the whole point of the church is the making of disciples, not merely the introduction of converts. Discipleship starts with conversion faith alone in Christ alone for the free gift of eternal life, but once a person places faith in Christ, they have entered into the school of discipleship. That's why your announcement earlier about small groups to grow you and your faith is so critical because God's goal is not church attendance. God's command is disciple making. What is a monthly case, a disciple. A disciple is a man or woman, a Christian who is progressively learning to live all of life under the rule of Jesus Christ. They are progressively developing into a visual verbal follower of Christ. They are people who have transform lives that transfer the values of the kingdom of God in every area of life is to the degree that God owns more of you next year's very own W this year that you are becoming a disciple. The idea of discipleship is the replication of the conduct and character attitudes and actions of Christ or as Jesus says in John 10. It is enough for a disciple to become like his master. It is the reflection of Christ being lived out in your life. My life, and collectively our lives in the chaos of the culture when I preach a sermon, much as your pastor does one on Sunday it is recording on a master CD. This master CD is then sent over to our national ministry. The urban alternative and people still want to use a CD will request a copy. We have duplicators this duplicators run all 16 messages a minute for people who want the message in CD4. The survey that was sent out or is sent out is a replica of the master. The city is not the master is a copy but the copy is so much like the master you could confuse it for the master because of the replication of the master is only one master of the company is designed to reflect the master Jesus was the one offered you in runoff or lease so that we become visible verbal copies of the mass so that his life is runoff on us in a way where would people see Stacy a little bit of what Jesus would look like if he was here in physical form that is the goal of discipleship. I'm here with my son Anthony Evans Junior he's a professional gospel artist. He leads worship all over the nation and around the world and God is giving him a great great ministry of music when he first started out. He of Yasmine said that, would you pick me up from the airport was just starting his music ministry said that when you pick me up from the airport on such short, this was before 9/11 and so you could go up to the day and I waited for him to get off his plane is about like 1/3 person to get off the plane and we were walking to baggage claim. Halfway to baggage claim. I look at him as staring and I say no you didn't.

He began to laugh because he knew exactly what I meant is that automobiles are personal to play you with first-class developers multiply you with things going. He did not have a first-class ticket.

He did not have first-class money. What he had was my main survivability of the here gone up to the counter said my name is Tony evidence that mistral and I would like to know if you have any platinum upgrades because I'm a platinum flyer with American cheese that all Dr. Evans were glad to have you fly with us again so you know what he did he piggyback off of my authority. He piggyback off of my main Jesus says make disciples so that they could piggyback off of me so that they can use my authority as they execute their lives in time and space in the chaos of the culture. So how do we do that how do we make disciples. That's what the church is designed to do.

My contention is today that we have plenty of Christians we do not have nearly enough disciples. We have Christians who have joined the teams and dogged the uniforms of the culture and have lost the distinctiveness of the faith. That's why you can have racial division on Sunday morning.

That's why you can have political division of the family of God, because they've lost their kingdom perspective, the word of God no longer has final say so in the decision-making of life so I could have as many divorces in the church as you do in the culture because men have not decided became the men and women have not decided to be kingdom women, parents have not decided to be king. The parents so because they have not yet been kingdom eyes as disciples of Jesus Christ may have been cultural lives by the environment in which they live in the false teams for which they play against three participles in Greek. When you have an imperative connected with participles.

The participles define the implementation of the imperative Toby imperative is to make disciples. The participles are go, baptize and teach those of the three points to Jesus's sermon. He says I want you to go now, you can study go in Hebrew, Greek, Eucharistic, Arab-American, Syria and Orleans, though it please don't say that is Jesus evangelistic term is used in Matthew 10, where he tells the disciples to grow to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and to tell the Messiah is here that was the message that is carried so well from harvest of evangelism of calling people to the free gift of salvation to go.

Please don't stay. It means that you're not just here for your growth you here for your influence. Your here to be equipped to be representatives of the king and his kingdom in the cultural to the trial Messiah has arrived.

He has died and he has risen that evangelism winning people to Christ is part of our mission of making disciples because you must make a convert first so the question is not only what you get when you come here, but the difference you make when you leave here when the benediction is over our gathering today is like a hot little football game of hundred thousand people don't gather at Los Angeles Stadium to watch the Rams play to see 11 grown men bend over and component that they don't mind a whole. As long as you only spend a few minutes to fix a few seconds it, but you know what I came to see what difference the whole makes having huddled can you know school where you going to do about 11 of the middle of the other side of the ball.

Then when you go public with your private conversation. They want to see your impact company. How do we have all instructions on all these quarters with all its members and all these preachers abolish buildings in all these programs is to have all this mess is a dead monkey on the line somewhere folk go to church but do not go their testimony for Christ is unclear. Their witness is a believer in Christ is mute on silent so the first thing has to do with evangelism has to do with the public declaration of your faith. If you are accused of worker being a follower of Christ. Would that be enough evidence to convict you or would you be found innocent of all charges because you have become a secret agent Christian spiritual CIA representative, a covert operative, not a public representative of the faith. Everybody else is coming out the closet you might as well, to second participles baptize them. The big one is that so baptism so in New Testament days was used of atomic die maker with mother wanted to sew a pink dress for her daughter would get the cloth and take it to the diabetic. The die maker would take the cloth and dip it into pink dye hired up was work off all the extraneous die. Let it dry.

No great cloth was pink it'd been recovered so the mother could now go home and make her daughter pink dress for that to happen. Any motion occurred. The cloth was immersed dip into this cloth into the die so that it had been re-colored reclassified. We identified Jesus chooses this word to explain, even new identity classification that belongs to his disciples. People need to be reclassified. Paul goes into this moment.

Six.

Those of you been identified with Christ. He says you will baptize with him you were raised brought up out of the dive with the newness of life. When a football team plays underneath the helmet and uniform the black players the white players the Spanish players that the players from the hood.

The players from the suburbs.

There will players.

The players from single-parent families players from nuclear for solid families that there are all kinds of histories under that beautiful but the argument beautiful, regardless of what the history and background happens to be. They've been dipped into a cowboy environment which means they all looking even though they are distinct in their humanity. They are reflecting the unity of that what you perform because they brought this warranty.

God does not negate our humanity, but he does over when it comes in conflict with him what he is saying is that believers are to be so identified as Christians that everything else is underneath that beautiful that they have been classified. They have been recolored makes it technically incorrect to say I'm a black crisp you know you're right Christian somebody else's agent Christian consider make black and white and adjective. I'm a Christian amount of the job of the adjective is to modify the noun survive personnel position; the adjectival positions I gotta keep adjusting the amount of my Christianity to the adjective of McCulloch, Sigma Christianity and always keep him in the adjectival positions so that my calendar and cultures is always in the now position so that if anything changes.

If the amount of my humanity about the adjective of my faith. It means my humanity must adjust to my beautiful that I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live I don't lose my uniqueness. But he says I am crucified with Christ the life which I now live. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That is my point of identification.

I am first and foremost a Christ follower. I am first and foremost a kingdom disciple. Everything else must around that everything else must adjust that everything else must be influenced by that that becomes my identity and so he says that it all be clear that you are a Christ follower cannot be clear publicly, not privately alone, not in church along the third participle is teach what you teach a new mythology, ecclesiology, eschatology, love the anthology would term archaeology of this is you teach them to observe you teach them how to apply spiritual truth to life's decision-making is what you teach this teach biblical knowledge. For knowledge think since you teach them to observe what ever I have commanded.

Which means you need to know what is commanded what he says what the goal is the observation, not merely the education you teach them to serve you teach them to live it out.

Teach them to reflected you teach them to manifested you teach them to apply it euro meeting the lifesaving surgery. The surgery would determine whether you lived or died. The doctor comes in and he sits by your bed and he says to you this is what we going to do tomorrow. He goes through all the idiosyncratic elements of the surgical nuances perform, he will cut here he will do this.

There he goes through, it is obvious that this doctor has been to school that he has learned his craft excellently. He then says to you, do you have any questions. I will know about you but I was in that situation. I have two questions.

Question number one. How many times have you done this before. If he tells me well first, but I made a in class.

His grade knowledge and information would not impress me.

Now the second question. My first question is how many times have you done this before my second question is how do people do it because if none of them made it.

I don't care about your grades. In other words, I don't want to know your information, I want to know your skill during the Bible study is critical. Being part of your small group is critical, but it only is meaningful if it's applied because if it is not a skill set is information that is of no use, teaching them to observe whatever I have commanded you, that is the whole corpus of biblical revelation and it is whatever I have commanded you not, whatever.

I have suggested to you. There are two answers to every question God's hands and everybody else's and everybody else's role God has spoken and he has not stuttered he has spoken clearly and he wants us to adjust. He concludes with the statement and low I will be with you always.

Verse 20 even to the end of the age and low I will be with you always, even to the end of the age group. We call this the go I mean construction.

The guard reconstruction means that the word I is written twice. So if we were to read in Greek literally it would read and I even I will be with you always, and I even I will be with you always wax when he write his name twice now in your version still put the word, I twice they intensify the one I sold low so that's really an emphasis because he write out twice. I even I will be with you always, even until the end of the age.

In the previous verse he said baptize them in the name of the father, the son of the Holy Spirit.

So he brings in the Trinity, the triune God which really means is one God, composed of three coequal persons who are one in essence, while distinct impersonality. The father is not the son son is not the spirit but the three together make up the one Godhead is like a pretzel with three holes before told that second holder signaled 1/3 off but the GOVERNMENT single is called divine nature, but now he extracts himself from the other two. He says even on the father, not the spirit.

I even wider seats move away and bring himself out of the three that he just talked about emphasizing himself with the echo I may construct. I even I will be with you till the end of the age because he began his sermon with all authority has been given to me all authority on the judgment.

You have to understand that Jesus is in charge them up there.

Here he will call the shots. What he is wanting to do is transfer priority all authority but here is I know we call this verse when people are sick and well within them will be with you. I know we corpus rose when the people are in trouble got things going with you. I know this post is user everything and there plenty of nurses you can use volatile situations but not this because this is very specific.

I will be with you. If you are a disciple not I will be with you generically because you are a Christian.

His concern of the great commission is on discipleship, not merely one conversion hearsay.

My authority will only be transferred to you when you are making disciple. I'm not going to transfer my authority to people who don't know how to use the people who challenge the people question it or the people subjugated to the culture to the politics to the racial divides to the cultural divides to the class divide representing the way Jesus does not relate to all Christians equally.

Not all Christians have Jesus. If you come to Christ, but he does relate to all Christians equally share his authority equally. Just because you're on the way to heaven. He wants to know are you good any good brick-and-mortar and he's not going transfer is right of rulership with people who not go take it and call the right place a call the right penalties or use the book to make the decisions he's only going to share his authority. That's why John chapter 2 verse 23, 25 says, many believed in him. The great furs.

There is personalized slow lies in the book of John always means conversion, it says, many believed in him. When he got converted preventative, but he would not commit himself to them because he knew what was in them. So even though they were converted. They did not have his full commitment and they did not have his full commitment because they had not yet made for commit to Jesus Christ does not relate to every Christian. Equally, he relates to the disciples and disciple makers at a whole different level than just generic Christianity engineer church membership. What we are leaving today in the collapse of our culture radical Christians. Christians full of love. Christians will approve never use sympathy to cancel out the truth, but who never clear the truth without a sympathetic heart. We are in desperate need of Christians today will full-time disciples, not part-time, since a man one day we just got married was on his way to his honeymoon left the wedding ceremony was going on to spend the first evening together as a married couple's general area where the wedding took place and had to go down a country road to make their way to the major area to their hotel was a $49 and so you could really see too far in front of you and they were behind an 18 wheel anything really was going pretty slow when he wanted to pass the 18 wheeler and so he pulled out to pass the 18 wheeler, but because of the fall didn't see the oncoming day there was a head-on collision.

The collision was so cataclysmic it flipped his car up over and into a ditch where both he and his new bride were knocked unconscious.

He came to first look on the passenger side and saw his new bride gushing blood. He knew that if she did not get help. Soon she would bleed out and die what is on this country road in this ditch in a crisis. And that's when he saw just about all the hill was a sign that said office of Dr. Bill Jones forgery. Could it be that the accident happened in front of a doctor's office. As best as he could. He staggered around the passenger side and picked up his beloved in staggered up the hill not going to all frantically hello gentlemen came to the door.

He said she's dying she's gyrating she's dying save her little man syndrome comes from some of them so I'm so sorry. I stopped practicing musical young man said Mr. you have two choices, save her or take down your son, but don't have a sign up giving me the impression that if I came to you, you could make a difference.

But when I come to you. You will practicing a lot of Christians today are carrying around a sign I'm a Christian I'm a follower of Christ, disciple and a faithful church member and this and that but when the culture is collapsing when the world is falling apart. We only discovered they don't practice anymore.

The challenge today is clear it will take down the sign. Practicing your Christian faith so that everybody knows you belong to the day, and you represent this kingdom as a tinge of the site, while what an amazing message. I don't know about you but that last closing illustration that really drove it home.

Talk about that Dr. my goodness there's a quote that he said basically either you have two choices right take the sign down or start living up to what you say you are start practicing what you preach. Start becoming that Christian that you say that you aren't in become a kingdom disciple that that impacted me.

I'll be honest that even convicted me a little bit and I can help you think maybe there is there some you out there that have been living kind of a compromise life.

You say you're one thing, but you're not really living up to it. This is something I talked about in my sermon in James two week before talking about faith without works is dead. If you say you're a believer if you say the fall of Jesus and he's your Lord and Savior for your life is not measuring up to what he was what you say you are, you have to ask yourself what kind of faith you have. That was my message, Dr. Tony, further, that saying hey if you got this sign up you've got an option take down that sign stop telling people you're a believer or start living up to it. My recommendation to you would be start living up to it because not only is it a blessing to you.

It's a blessing to the people around you.

The relationships that you have the people your friends with your loved ones, your your marriage or children. It helps you in so many ways. When you fully commit your life to Jesus Christ and so if you're watching right now, and you've maybe been living a compromise life, you haven't really made that real commitment to walk with God. Yeah, you believe in your heart. We haven't started walking with a listen I just want to invite you to pray really simple prayer to asked Jesus Christ to come into your life. You can do it wherever you're at, you could be sitting at home watching on your couch watching TV right now could be from your computer screen menu could be on a walk right now listening to a podcast I listen to this via audio wherever you might be your car work wherever you can pray this prayer and meet it in your heart, here's what's amazing. It's between you and God, not the people around you.

It's between you and your father in heaven. So this pray this prayer to God. I know I'm a sinner. I know I've messed up and I made mistakes, but I turned from that life now. I turned from my sin, I turned to you, I commit myself to you from this moment forward. Help me to walk with you and talk with you in Jesus name I pray, amen. Everybody thinks or listening to this podcast to learn more about harvest ministries follow the show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org and the find out how to know God personally go to harvest.org and click on know God