Look, we're so glad you're with us wherever you are this morning. And, uh, man, here's what I know. Every campus has people like Hope and Andy Creekmore. And man, I'm so thankful for the way that you guys serve and the way that you give and the way that you invest in other people see a need me to need. It's just what you do. And we are so thankful to get to share this journey with you.

Now, speaking of a journey, spring Break has become a journey. It's like a month of March is all spring break. It's like it never stops. And uh, this past, this past week, uh, my family got a chance to kind of get away for spring break. And I don't know if you're like me, if you're in this similar stage of life, but we've got a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old, and you start counting the number of spring breaks you have left, you know, and so like, we've got two more left with Mac. And so we tried to make the most of them. And so we had some friends down in Stone County that put us on a vacation. They put us on a little, little place that we went. And so we traveled and, and they told us about a restaurant. And just this just a kind of a just for fun. I don't know if you know this about me, but I love to try new things. Like if it's a new restaurant, I'm all about it. Katie just wants to go to the same restaurant and get the same thing every time. I wanna go somewhere new. And so the, the only thing we knew about this little restaurant was, uh, listen, get the cheeseburger. That's what they kept telling us. You gotta go try the cheeseburger here. And man, I walked into the restaurant and it was right over next to the beach. And so there are just people in their swimsuits. It's just this little dive, like this little local restaurant. There were, uh, college banners hanging everywhere in the restaurant. And I, I'm just telling you, I got distracted. And so I started looking at everything. I started looking at all the different options on the menu, and everything looked good to me. And when it came time to order, I, I just, I forgot about the advice of my friends, and we got a grilled cheese, we got a fish, and we got one cheeseburger. And then there was this moment when the waiter came out with all of our food. And as soon as I saw the cheeseburger, I knew I'd messed up. You know, like, why didn't I get the cheeseburger? I got distracted. Now, hold that thought, because I'm gonna come back to it in just a little bit.

All right? Now listen, we're in our final week of this series called The Way of Jesus, and I would tell you, I think this has been a great series. I want you to help me. Would you just give our team a hand for the series that, that we've been all been walking through? This has been a good one. If you've missed it, go back online. But let me show you kind of the thing we've been using. There's this big wheel, this, we've called these the seven marks of Discipleship. And basically we studied Jesus' life and we said, we see all seven of these things in his life. And so we have spent a week teaching on each one of these marks. I mean, you can just go back to 'em online, you can see all of them. Now we've made it to the last one this week, and we're on this one right here called Developing Others.

But we've also just released a new, a new tool to kind of help you. And so sometime today or sometime this week, open up the Venture app, alright? And as soon as you open up the app, you're gonna see a resource right there where you can take a quick assessment and it's gonna lead you through questions on each one of these things. And then at the end of it, it's gonna kind of give you a report, like a report card, kind of scary, right? And it's gonna help you see how you're doing in each one of these marks or disciplines. It'll show you, Hey, look, man, you honestly, you probably wanna try to figure out how you can work on serving others. And then when you identify that it's gonna take you to a page, it's gonna give you a message about it, it's gonna give you stories about it, it's gonna give you some tools to help you begin to grow in whichever one of these you identify as maybe a strength or a weakness. Okay? So don't miss a chance this week to do that. We've put a lot of time and energy into it. We want you to use that tool that's right there on that.

Now, today, here's what we're gonna do today. Today we're gonna get to the last and final part of the series. And we're gonna look at really what was Jesus' farewell address, his last words to you and the man. We think these last words are incredibly important. In fact, the disciples, they thought they were essential. Uh, they thought they were foundational. And so I wanna invite you to meet me in Matthew, and we're gonna be in Matthew 28. And the big idea for today, here's really what we're hoping to do today, is we're wanting to give you a really clear picture of your purpose. How many of you know you have purpose? And when we read these last words from Jesus, you're gonna see with so much clarity, the purpose that he has for you today in the season of life that you're in.

So meet me in Matthew 28, and we're gonna read this together. Matthew 28, this is called the Great Commission. You may have heard it before. We're gonna start in verse 16. Alright, here we go. It says, then the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. Now, if you're like me, first sentence, you're going, I thought there were 12, weren't there? 12 disciples? Well, remember, this is the very last words of Jesus. So he's already been crucified, he's already been resurrected, and now he's pulling back his disciples to give them these final words. And there's 11, because you know this, Judas has already sold him out. So now we're down to 11. Alright, here we go.

When they saw him, this is the disciples, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Now I I I kinda love that little line too, because don't you know when that moment went down here, there are all the disciples and everything they've been through, and then Matthew's writing down exactly what he's seeing going on in this moment. And he writes down right there face to face. Oh, and they begin to doubt. And, and don't, you know, the disciples are like, bro, do you really have to include that line? I mean, couldn't you, I mean, do you have to include the fact that we just doubted again to which Matthew would be like, guys, y'all been getting it wrong the whole time. Why are you worried about this one? You know? And then he says, I thought it was really cool too, because he says, uh, when they finally see him, they, do you see this? They worshiped him. How many of you ever said something like this? Well, when, when I see Jesus, I tell you what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna ask him questions. I I wanna know why you did this, and I wanna know why you allowed this. I wanna know why this happened. And I, I feel that same thing. I mean, but isn't it interesting? The first thing they did when they saw Jesus was they worshiped him. I think that's probably what we'll do too.

Then Jesus came to them and he said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age.

Now, three things today to help you kind of discover what your purpose is and what my purpose is, here's the very first thing to help you discover your purpose. You need a fresh perspective. And let me show you where that's coming from. It's from the first verse that we read, okay? It says, then the 11 disciples went to, you see this, they went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. Galilee is where it all started. I want you to go back to the region where I first called, where I first picked my team. I want you to go back to the mountain where I've taught hundreds of messages. I wanna do this for you because I'm watching you. And here's what I know about you disciples. You've gotten weird. You've been stuck up in this upper room, you've been stuck up in here. And this negative disciple has now affected everybody. You know how when your fears begin to go, Katie says, it's a lie in my family. She'll say, I'm not gonna voice my fears because then everybody's gonna get scared. And one person's fears affects everybody. And these guys, these 11 had been up in there and they started hating. They started getting worried, they started getting nervous, they started getting doubtful. And then finally Jesus shows the back up and he says, well, the first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna pull you out of that environment. So he says, why don't you take a little journey, a four day journey, four day hike. Why don't you go back to a mountain where I can begin to give you a fresh and a clear perspective?

There's nothing like being up on a mountain where you see things differently. There's nothing like a four day journey to get you out of the normal things of life and to get you outta your routine. And that's exactly what he does. He pulls them out. Maybe you remember this, right? A change of this is so powerful place plus a change of pace brings a whole new perspective to life. And that's what the disciples needed because they'd been together and they were all rubbing off on each other and it wasn't good. And so before Jesus gives them this ultimatum, before he gives 'em the purpose of their life, before he gives them the marching orders of everything he wants to do, he brings 'em back to the mountain where it all started.

You know, we, we tell couples this all the time. They'll walk in and man, they just can't even talk to each other. They're so mad because they're teenagers. They're so crazy. Or because they're so exhausted from taking care of their kids and it's been forever, since it's just been them two. Or they're in empty nesters and they don't even like each other anymore, and they're so mad at each other. And we'll say, Hey, I want you to tell me, tell me how you met. And they're like, do I have to? Yeah, yeah. I want you to go all the way back to the first time you met. And the ch the perspective begins to change because they remember what maybe they forgot. They look back to give them faith to look forward. And that's what Jesus does with them. He, he takes 'em back.

He did the same thing with Abraham. You remember the story of Abraham when Abraham's stuck in his little tent and all he can see is the tent. And there's, there's, there's really hard to get a lot of perspective in this little eight foot tent. And then he says, Abraham, would you take just a a two foot field trip and walk outside? And then when he gets Abraham outside, he says, look up. Here's the verse. He said, Abraham, look up. And he took him outside and he said, look up at the sky and count the stars if indeed you can count them. Then he said, so shall your offspring be. In other words, the vision that I have for your life, Abraham, it's bigger than you can imagine. It's more than you can see. It's more than you can handle up in that little tent. So I'm gonna bring you out here to something bigger. Same thing with the disciples. Up in this upper room, it's too much. But when you get out here and you have a fresh perspective and you can see past some of the church hurt, and you can see past the divorce, and you can see past the way things didn't go the way you thought they would, and you get back to the basics, you're gonna see then that I've got a plan for you.

And that's the second thing. This is so powerful. That's the second part about discovering your purpose. The first thing is the clarity. Then the next thing is you realize, hey, you know, believe it or not, we're unified in our purpose that this is, this is so good because here's what I know about our rooms and our campuses and all the people watching. We all have different passions. I mean, we all have different things that we lean towards. You know, I lean towards the spring break trip going to the mountains. You may lean towards spring break trip going to the beach. I lean towards change. I love new restaurants. You may want the same restaurant. I mean, we're wired differently, but we all have the same purpose as followers of Jesus. Th this is really important because sometimes our differences are what we're known for and we shouldn't be known for our differences. Yeah, sure you got different tendencies or different things you like, but there's one purpose. There's one mission that we all have. And this is what it is. He lays it out to him. He says it so clearly. Here's what you all are to do. All of you disciples, here's your marching orders. Here is now the way that you're gonna measure ministry. Really simple. I want you guys to go do this. Therefore, now go and you begin to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you. Then he gives 'em this powerful promise. And when you're doing these things, surely I'm with you always.

Now, think with me just for a minute, what would it have been like if from then until now, the church focused on this. What if every church was known for making disciples? I mean, think about how many, uh, what? I mean how many churches did Jesus start? How many books did Jesus write? Jesus did one thing. He made disciples. And when he laid out the game plan, when he gave the purpose to the next step, when he told us what to do, he said, I want you to do exactly what I've been doing. You have one instruction now and it's to go and multiply. It's to go and make disciples.

And the disciples thought, just like me and you, you gotta be talking to the wrong people. Like you think we're gonna do this. We're not ready for this. We've only been with you for three years. We're too young. We don't know all the right things. We haven't been to seminary, we haven't done the things that you've done. Are you serious? You're looking at me saying, go now and you do this. They were overwhelmed. This was outside of their comfort zone. It may be the same for you. You may see that and go, this is too much for me. I'm not ready for this. Well, here's the powerful part of this. Okay, let's go back to scripture 'cause it's gonna give you some confidence. The verse before this, look what Jesus tells them. This is the key to understanding the great commission. Then Jesus came to them and said, all authority, all power in heaven and on earth, it's been given to me. And he then gives it to them. He says, yeah, yeah, I know you're overwhelmed by that. I know that's more than you can think. I know those twins are driving you crazy. I know that classroom's full of high maintenance kids. I know this is a challenge and this is a task that seems too big. But don't forget all authority and all power has been given to me. And when you make disciples, I give it to you. See, they remembered what I think we forget. The disciples took this mission and they acted on it. They didn't debate it. They didn't wonder who it applies to. They didn't delegate it. They submitted to his authority so that they could get his authority.

Now, they were just as overwhelmed as you. Look at this little list, guys, three things in this great commission that are overwhelming to them and it's overwhelming to us. Here's the first one. Make disciples of all nations. Don't forget these guys had never gone 30 miles from where they were born. And now you want me to go and make disciples of people that I don't even associate with. I mean the Samaritans, I don't even talk to them. And you're telling me now as a disciple that I'm gonna go get to know them and disciple them and share with them the things you've shared with me of all nations. That's that's mind blowing. Baptize them. Jesus. I thought that's what John the Baptist did. You know, he baptized you and I thought that's what you did. You're now telling me that I'm gonna baptize people like you think this is something we should do. Men and women, we should go baptize people. I don't want to UI don't wanna be in the same water as them. We're, we're not even frenemies. We're enemies. I I don't wanna be united with them. We're known for our differences, not the things that are similar, but he's telling them, I want you to baptize them. That's what he's telling us. And then he says to teach them everything that I've taught you, I can't even remember John three 16, how am I supposed to remember everything you've taught me? You mean I'm supposed to wash their feet like you washed our feet? You mean I'm supposed to love my enemies and teach them that in the same way that you taught me that you mean the parables that you taught us. We're just supposed to go teach them these disciples just like me. And you were overwhelmed. And that's why Jesus ended this huge, huge, huge statement with this big, big, big promise. Look at the promise, he says, and surely I am with you. All of that, all of those fears. I don't know what yours are. There's something similar to this. I don't know what part of this is where you hit the brakes for them. It was this part. That's why he says, surely I'm with you. Always. As you begin to step out and you begin to make disciples, he says, I'm gonna be with you and I give you my authority.

Now, here's the last thing, the third thing, because this is really where we are. We've gotta demystify disciple making you guys, I don't know how many of you guys remember ar y'all remember AR points? I hated AR points and, and um, I remember in elementary school when we did AR points, it was like reader's shame. I mean people like me that had dyslexia and, and were slow readers, we hated ar. And every week somebody would come in and they had read like three Harry Potter books and they'd get 800 points and everybody else is just like, I trying to make it to 50. You know, and then they would roll out this deal where, you know, if you got 800 points, then, then you got to go to a pizza party at CC'S Pizza. You remember that? I mean, these kids would just get up to the buffet and have a blast. And if that wasn't enough, they'd say, Hey, listen, if you made it to the 800 points, you get to get CC'S pizza and you get to ride in a Hummer. And those guys would come back on campus. You know, like, look at me. I had cc's and I wrote in a Hummer.

And I think that's what we've done with discipleship. Uh, you don't have enough points, you're not ready. And bro, you, you stuck at step one. You still struggling with lust. You ain't nowhere near ready. You still struggle with greed. You're not ready, you don't have the points. Like old pastor Jeff, 38 years he did ministry. You sure you're ready? Lemme tell you something, man, you're never ready. You're not ready to get married. You don't have all the answers. You're not ready to be a parent. You ain't got this thing figured out. You're not ready to disciple on everything that you know, in your knowledge. What makes you ready is your humility. What makes you ready is your availability. What makes you ready is your intentionality. See, I gotta, I gotta help you look at discipleship different because we've been told that it's a mark that you gotta be up here at. But the reality is it's a heart that you gotta have.

See, there should be, this is really, this is really powerful. There should be more people like you because of you. I'm just looking out the crowd and I don't know what it's like at some of these other campuses, but I'm gonna tell you, I I look out at Lincoln Road, there's more USM fans because of some of the fans in this room. There's more Bulldog fans because of some of the fans in this room. There's even more LSU fans because of some of the fans up in this room. So there's more people like you because of you. Here's the question. Are there more disciples because of you? There should be more people like you. Because if your discipleship is not about steps or degrees, it's about availability and intentionality.

I dunno if you guys heard the podcast this week that we do, and it's called Doug, it's on the app. You can download it every week. It's called Unschooled and Ordinary. And, and we heard from some of the folks that sit right down here on the front row at Lincoln Road and they're empty net empty nesters now, uh, Dean and Stephanie Blakesley and they, one of the things they said about discipleship for them, they've opened up their home now and, and they host a house church. And they said, they looked around the room and realized the ministry's right in the room. It's like all they had to do was look around and make themselves what available. All they had to do is look around and say, we're gonna be intentional with what God's given us. I heard it in the, in the bumper video. You heard it too. You heard from hope and Hope said for her, the thing that moved her was what? It was the need. How about fell out when she said 17 sixth grade girls? It's pretty big need. And she responded because she saw a need. It's like God put a need on her heart. And and what I'm asking you is to begin to say, Hey, listen, what are the things that you're doing? How are you discipling as you go? I mean, as you go and as you do life, you're gonna see opportunities to lean in and to be available and to be intentional. And it's not about the steps or the degrees, it's about you seeing a need and meeting a need.

This whole great commission, it's got two very simple goals, okay? We're gonna bring this thing down to where everybody can get it. The very first goal, the very first goal, this whole thing, is that you recognize you need to know Jesus. I mean, that's where it all starts, right? Remember he went back to Galilee and this is where the ministry began, and this is where he called them, and this is where he taught them. And this is where the miracles happened and the teaching happened. And he's taken those disciples back to say, listen, do you know me guys? I mean, come on. Remember how we were baptized? This was the beginning. There was a marker in your life where it all began. So the very first thing about the Great Commission is, do you really know Jesus? Because it's hard to be passionate about leading other people to know him. If you don't know him, you're like, man, I know religion. I know church. I know guilt, I know shame. I know all the motions. But like Jesus, for three years, have you followed him? Do you know him? And that's what these baptism moments are about is when we're celebrating people that are saying, Hey, you know what? I don't know what the story's been like up until this point, but now I have buried all of that and I'm coming alive to this new walk and new relationship in Jesus. And so that's the very first part.

One of the things we got scheduled, I'm so excited about it, is what we call reclaim weekend. And it's a weekend where we just celebrate people that are doing goal number one. They're coming to know Jesus. I mean, the whole weekend's built around it. We're gonna put something together on a Wednesday night where it's an outdoor baptism night where you can bring your house, church, and you can bring your family. And we're gonna worship together out on e Every, every campus is gonna do this. We're gonna be outside and we're just gonna celebrate stories of people that have come to know Jesus this year. So that's the first place. Maybe that's where you are.

But then the second place is real simple for the great commission. This is where the disciples were. Goal number two is you've gotta make Jesus know, you've gotta decide in your heart that this is gonna be a priority for you. That you're gonna use your home, you're gonna use your platform, you're gonna use your influence to begin to help people know, love and follow Jesus. You're gonna make Jesus known. That's what the disciples did so well. That's what they took so seriously. That's what they found essential. That's what they found foundational. That is what they did. Because that is what Jesus did.

The church has gotten so confused. I think we've gotten you ready. Here's what I'm asking you to watch out for. It's what happened to me at the restaurant. I think we've gotten distracted, man, every, there were so many things in that restaurant to look at. I kept looking at the banners to see if USM was up there, if Mississippi State was up there, I mean, there were so many families everywhere there, all that menu, there were so many different things. But the restaurant was known for what? Cheeseburgers. Man, that that lady brought out that cheeseburger. I had to split a cheeseburger with a 16-year-old. That's a bad deal. I had regrets. I I was envious, I was distracted. Here's what I don't want for you. I I don't want there to be a day where you luck up and you go, I, I missed my chance. I I, I ordered wrong. I had a chance to be a part of this movement. I I had a chance to invest in what God was doing so that Stone County can have a bigger worship center so we can put more people up in there. I had a chance on my street to invite people to come over to my house for house church. I had a chance to disciple my kids for the short, short window that they're in my home. I had the chance. And so many of you do this so well, like hundreds of you do this every single week. I had the chance to give up one hour to pray over 16, sixth grade girls. I had a chance to get to know their names. I had a chance to do something for somebody because this is why some of you don't do it. That no one did for me. I had the chance to invest in the next generation and do for them what other people have done for us. Don't get distracted. We've gotta do for others what they did for us.

Now, here's the second thing I wanna ask you to do. And this is, this is really good. It's real simple. I just want you to figure out your part hope, stage of life she's in. She's bringing her kids up here for student ministry. Anyway, she said, I'm just gonna sit down right here and invest in some sixth grade girls the podcast you'll hear at the blakesley, empty nesters, the stage of life they're in. They said, I'm gonna open up my home. So many of you, each week you give sacrificially and you've created these spaces and you've allowed us to go to a multi-site model where we have campuses and all these different communities. 'cause you've given sacrificially, you do this steadily. What is gonna be your part? Here's the question. Here's the one to ask. Okay? Do you spend any of your time, resources, or rhythms of your life making disciples? Now that's not meant to make you feel guilty. That's just meant to be a challenge to you to say, Hey, listen, going forward, I remember that message because that message was built off of what it was built off The great commission. And the great commission is essential and it's foundational. And it's the last words of Jesus. It's exactly what the disciples did. And this whole series seven weeks of following the way boils down to this one question, do you spend any of your time, resources, or rhythms of life making disciples? Because that's what Jesus did, and that's what we are to do.

And then here's where it gets really good, because I get to see each week people that fall in love with that process. I get to see each week, people at every campus that when you see someone being baptized, you've fallen in love with watching people give their souls to Jesus. I get to see you each week that you sacrifice financially because the thing you want to give towards is seeing more people in heaven. And then I get to see moments like this week on Tuesday when we did a funeral. 46-year-old man, three kids lost his life to cancer. And I could preach his sermon with so much clarity that he gave his life to making disciples. There was no regret, there was no searching for a moment where he knows that he knew Jesus. I day, if anybody's in heaven, he's in heaven. There was no question about has he given his life to something that matters? There was evidence all through his life, all through his marriage, all up in his kids, all up in his work. The evidence was right there Following the way of Jesus.

Now, if you're overwhelmed, if you hear all of that about Walter Carpenter and you go, well, that's just not me. I don't know how he did it. Well, here's the promise. Here's how he did it. It's the last thing he says, Jesus says to you, and surely I am with you. Hope when you're with those 16 sixth graders, I'm with you Blakesley. When you gotta clean your house one more time and open it up and you're watching all those kids go everywhere, I'm gonna give you patience because I'm, I'm with you. Hey, when you make that decision to give, I'm gonna bless you because I am with you to the very end of the ages. But here's the question. Who is he saying he's with? He's with you when you make disciples. I don't know what happens if you're not making disciples. I I just know what happens when you do make disciples, when you choose to allow your life to intersect with Jesus and you make disciples, you can count on the fact that he is with you. He's with you.

Listen, as we bring this series to a close, this is your chance. Don't miss your moment to go number one, know Jesus. This is where he started with the disciples. Goal number two, make Jesus know, listen, you're gonna have a chance. You can come down, we will pray with you. We will pray for you. You can come down to the crosses and you can leave up some of the things that have been what? That distractions. You can sit where you are and pray. God, just give me strength. Let me claim your promises that you're with me because I've got a big challenge ahead of me. I got a lot of disciples in my home that I gotta start making. And we want to join you in that. You wanna come take communion, Let's pray together and then we'll worship.

God, I thank you that you have so much grace for us. God, I thank you that you've given us purpose. Uh, we should not be confused as to what you've called us to. It's so clear we are called to make you known. We're called to make disciples. We're called to use everything we have, every gift, every resource, every minute and every moment to make you famous. And you said in your word that you give us authority for that. You said in your word that you would be with us for that. So God, us, we break up outta here. Go with us. God, as we fight to not get distracted, help us be clear. Help us be purposeful. Help us be a church that is a great commission, church that has laser vision, that has fallen in love with seeing you becoming known that's fallen in love with discipleship that lives for one more moment, to see someone come to no love and follow Jesus and is a church that is for the unchurched because that's who you were for. So God, you've given us our vision. God give us the laborers. It's in your name we pray. Amen.