Carried out by the Church

Well, good morning, Cross Church Phoenix. How are you? >> Good, good. Uh, if I haven't met you, if you're new here, I'm Pastor DJ. Uh, welcome in. Come find me afterwards. I'd love to chat with you, get to know you more. Uh, but welcome in. If you're new with us, we are in our sermon series through the great commission uh, launching our 2-year disciplehip journey called Let's Go. Let's go. If if you're wondering like what is that? It is our response to what we believe God is calling Cross Church Phoenix to do and to be. Um in a time when churches are closing all across America, our mission as is plastered all over the church is making Jesus known. But we have more to that, right? There's making Jesus known. How? By creating a movement of multiplying churches, right? That are biblical, relevant, missional. So, we're seeking, our theme has been seeking to fulfill the great commission one church at a time. And I'm excited to see what God does in and through us. Uh, a couple weeks ago, back on March 8th, we had what's called our advanced commitment night. This was a night of worship, prayer, and uh, commitment, committing to let's go early, and many of our families uh, came. And I hope that this fact inspires you as I was humbled to hear it. And I pray that it would prepare your hearts for next Sunday. So next Sunday is our commitment Sunday here at Phoenix. And uh I wasn't as clear I think in 9:00 a.m. cuz like some folks were thinking that it's a different thing that is happening during services. So 9 and 10:30 services will have a a reflective time of commitment and stuff like that. You'll see. Um but the reason that um but I want to share this with you before I get to something else. um some facts that came from advanced commitment Sunday. We had 78 families, these are households, families make commitments on the ETH. Of those 78 households, 16 of them were brand new givers to Cross Church. Yeah. They Amen. Amen. They had never given before, showed up at Advanced Commitment, and started supporting the mission for the first time. And those are disciplehip wins. Um and and so my hope is that as we grow together, our commitments will represent our first and best, right? Given in faith, joyful sacrifice, surrender to his will. And um you're like, "Isn't there usually a video before you?" Yeah. Um I wanted to come up say a few words, but we captured some thoughts, some folks on video from our advanced commitment night that we wanted to share with you now. So if we have that uh prepared, we'll go we'll go into that. I'll step aside for a minute. All right. So let's go. Let the nations hear your name. Your glory drawing near where to make your name. Know your kingdom come. Love be shown. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. >> Let's go. >> Let's go. >> Let's go. >> Let's go. >> Let's go. >> Kevin and Christy brought it home. That's right. Yeah. >> When I first saw that, I was like, "Yes, Kevin and Christy bringing us home." So, in the chairs, there's commitment cards and Easter invitations. And we're actually running a little low on commitment cards, which is really cool. Um, but they're spread out. If you don't have one, I mean, you could snag one from someone else or well, don't take it out of their hand, but maybe if there's a seat around them, you know. Um, but if you would uh snag that, I want to um challenge you first to invite someone to Easter. Uh we have these little invites that uh Brother Brian was Brother Brian, I like that, Brother Brian, uh was t was talking about. Take those and we have more in the back in the baskets. Take a few and intentionally invite some folks to our Easter services. Um, but I also want to challenge you to take a commitment card home, uh, if you haven't already. Maybe you already have one, but take it home and and pray over it. And I do need to go over this. There have been a few questions, so I want to make sure that, uh, everything's clear on it. Um, but the left side is just putting information in. The the top right on the right side is what I we normally give in a year. That is, you know, what would be what you normally do. Um, and for some people maybe that is a zero, but like it's a win though if when we start to give. And then the plus there in the middle one is our expanded uh my our expanded annual generosity for let's go whatever God leads you to do. Um, and then in little print even I have troubles like wait is times two years. Remember this is a 2-year disciplehip campaign not one. Um, and so the commitment is over a two-year time frame, not one. And then the bottom line there is for those who have gifts from stored resources, stuff like that. And then at the bottom as we kick off this uh in April runs from April 26 to April 28 um would be you know what you're saying my commitment is. And now I know sometimes people like what if I make a commitment but something happens life happens and this has to go down or it's like we're not going to come knocking on your door like hey we're no no that's not it right. This is all about um generosity and fulfilling the great commission one church at a time. So I'm going to preach heavily. Our goal is 100% engagement. And if I could share my heart pastorally, take a little pastoral privilege. Um I want to communicate something very clearly. I'd rather have 100% engagement by everyone who calls Cross Church Phoenix home than $7 million. Make sense? We have a goal of $7 million. We believe that that would be and and like half of it is ongoing ministry. If you look at um if if you look at that first bucket here that's on the commitment card, some a percentage a large percentage is ongoing ministry. What it takes to just do what we're already doing. and then other chunks of it go towards church planting. Um, and so I we have the $7 million goal as Pastor Jackie has said. It's kind of a war chest for church planting. And I like that language like just having resources ready to go for that. But I would rather have 100% engagement and not $7 million because because if it's about the money then it's not about disciplehip. Right? Right? If Elon Musk uh wrote us a $7 million check and then no one else had to do anything, that's not a disciplehip win. It is not. Right? It' be one person doing no no 100% engagement. If you call Crossro Phoenix home, that's the win, right? And whether we meet seven, I I don't that's a that's secondary to me. It's about disciplehip. It is. And so giving as we preach and teach here is an act of worship and obedience for the believer. So my prayer isn't that we get $7 million. It's that we get 100% involved. All right? Say that publicly and online. All right? So please, I ask you to just take your commitment card home, pray about your involvement, prepare your heart. Um as as Paul says to Corinth, to cheerfully give as the Lord leads you. And so that's why these are spread out. I challenge you, take one home, pray over it, and we will have a time next week um of just turning these over to the Lord. I also have special news for you this morning that I just found out a few weeks ago, but this Sunday marks Cross Church Phoenix's 10year anniversary. >> Yeah. Um and and I was talking and Pastor Andrew told me I was like, "Oh man," and I learned this a couple weeks ago. I was like, "And we don't have a lot of time like do something cool for it." So, but now that I know it's in my calendar and it's on repeat annually forever, so even when I die, it'll pop up on my phone, right? Um, Cross Church Phoenix's anniversary. Um, but perhaps we could do some cool stuff um next year. But I want to I want to share that with you celebratory. Pastor Andrew uh and his wife came and this was a church plant back in 2016 and we're still here and we're still going strong. Praise the Lord. But with our 10-year anniversary also comes a challenge associated with this. Truly, the fact of the matter is Cross Church Phoenix has not been self- sustaining for the 10 years we've been here. But we can be. We can be. Uh we're headed in a positive direction. In fact, 2025 was the closest year we've ever been to being self- sustained. And by self- sustained, what I mean is that we don't need money from the collective to stay open because this church body, you and 9:00 a.m., right? Everybody is supporting this church by itself. And then not just supporting what we're doing here on our own as a church body, but then being able to contribute to the collective and support church planting efforts that that need it. Right. cross church mayor and a glacia de la Cruz are getting geared up to start and they receive help from the collective of course and the goal would be for them to become self-supported as well. Um but I think it's time it's time for Phoenix to be self- sustaining. Our goal, right, of let's go is to see more stories of Phoenix, right? More baptisms, more families coming into Christ, more brokenness healed in places that we can't go ourselves, but others are, right? Maybe you're not called to go to mayor, but Lyall and Heather Harrenstein are, and we can support them as they go. My heart is to see us to move from being consumers in in the collective to contributors to the collective. If we don't need uh support from the collective, we can give support to it. It's not that we're trying to separate ourselves from it. No, we're saying we got this. We got Phoenix. Let's give towards other church planting efforts and do what's been done for us for others. If Cross Church Phoenix, specifically us, if we show up for this, it would be a big deal. It really would be. We would be making a statement that we are all in. Not just supporting ourselves, but taking it a step further and saying, "Hey, sign us up for supporting other church plants. Send the money to a glacia de la Cruz and send it over to mayor. We got this." That would be huge for us. And I think and that's all wrapped up in here. It is. It truly is. And with that, I just want to encourage you. Take that, pray over it, and let's pray now. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word. Help us, God, to just be humble servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we are ultimately. God, we pray that you would give us ears to hear what the spirit has to say to Cross Church as we now come under the preaching of your word. all of us, myself included, in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if you can uh stand, we're going to read scripture together in honor of God's word. And if you can't stand up, you can stand with us in spirit. That's fine. It's about a heart posture. Um so, if you're able to, you can. If not, stand with us in spirit. And I'm going to read Matthew 28:19 and 20. And then followed by Acts 18. Jesus says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you, and remember, I am with you always to the end of the age." And in Acts 18, Jesus says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." Thanks. You can be seated. We've been in the great commission for a few weeks now, and it has been helpful for me, and I hope for you to look at it from different angles. Last week we saw the great commission is a command for all disciples to make disciples, right? Disciples of Christ to make disciples of Christ. And this morning we're going to look at how the church carries out uh the great commission. How do we carry this out? And to do that, we're going to look and camp mainly in Acts 1:8 where we just read the risen Jesus says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." And if you recall in the uh contextually, I was going to say contextually, empasis on the wrong sal, right? Contextually, Jesus says that, right? Acts 18, you'll be my witnesses. He says that in response to the disciples question about whether or not he was going to restore the kingdom to Israel at that moment. Right. Right here, right now. Are you going to restore the kingdom? Now, Jesus, what are they looking for? They're looking for a political change of kingdom, so to speak. Remember, they're under Roman occupation, and it's understandable. I mean, you're having a conversation. You're looking at the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Kind of a big deal. And you might think in your mind, hey, it's time to let's smash those Romans, right? Like, let's do this thing. Let's take Israel back. And and and no, that's not that's not it, right? What does Jesus say in response to them? Um, that's not for you to know, boys. Right? It's not for you to know. Don't you worry about how the end will happen. I we'll take care of that. What is important for them to know is what? That they are about to receive power from the Holy Spirit. That's what's important now. That's what matters right now in the moment. They don't need to know when the end time how the end times will work out. They need to know that the Holy Spirit will soon indwell and empower them for the purpose of what? To be his witnesses. That is priority number one, being his witness. What ultimately matters is what's if you look down in verse 12 um it says when they then they return to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives which is near Jerusalem where where they were a Sabbath day's journey away that's what they need to be doing right now Jesus said go back to Jerusalem and wait for me wait for wait for the Holy Spirit right to come that's what matters and if you remember in Acts chapter 2 if you haven't read Acts it's it's It's your own history, right? If you're part of the body of Christ, the church, this is your history. Read it. It's great. And in Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit, what comes and they're empowered and Peter preaches and 3,000 people get saved and the mission of the church unfolds. And I like what one pastor said, one preacher named Paul Washer. He said this, I'm looking for where the the power has gone in churches. and and he said, "You know, Peter preached one sermon and 3,000 people got saved." We have churches now full of pastors who preach 3,000 sermons and no one gets saved. It's like, "Yeah, that's what's up." Bring and that's why we preach the gospel, right? The undiluted, unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ. And the same promise of the indwelling and empowering of the Holy Spirit in Acts 1 is the same promise we have right when we come to Christ. We have the same Holy Spirit working in us. It's not like Holy Spirit B or Holy Spirit 2.0 that's like a little subpar like they had like a team Holy Spirit and we get B team Holy. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's the same Holy Spirit that gives us strength and power to be his witnesses 2,000 years later. So, how does the church carry out the great commission? Right? How do we as Cross Church Phoenix 2,000 years later be part of this? Well, what Jesus is doing in Acts 1:8 is providing a template for how the church will fulfill the great commission to make disciples of all nations. the locations he uses Jerusalem then he then he expands to all Judea and Samaria and then expands to the end of the earth he's describing their spheres of influence right this is a gradual growth it starts in Jerusalem itself like kind of headquarters but then it expands into regions surrounding regions Judea and Samaria Judea is the region to the south and Samaria's to the north he's just talking about how this is going to start here and it's going to go here and then where's it going to end up? The rest of the world, right? My guess is that most of us, and if you have, I want to talk cuz I want to go sometime. Um, but most of us have not stepped foot in Jerusalem. I want to go so bad. I just can't afford to right now. But go to Jerusalem to visit. But my guess is that many of you, if not all of you, have never even been to Jerusalem. Does Jesus mean that we all need to pack up, go to Jerusalem, be a witness there for a little while? I don't know. Then leave and hang out in Judea, spend some time there, then go to Samaria, spend some time there, and then fly around the world um and do our thing. Is that what Jesus means? This is not teaching that every Christian has to start their witnessing journey in literal Jerusalem. They would have understood this as spheres of influence. Uh Jerusalem is their innermost sphere. And so that's our first point. If you have a handout uh in if not they're in the back, but if you hand a have a hand out that we first carry out the great commission by making Jesus known in our families, our Jerusalem Now, if I could change that, sometimes I look at things later and I've already turned it in and it's been printed, but I look at it later, I'm like, if I could change that, I would simply say, making Jesus known to those around you. It definitely includes your family. But as I reflected on what this would mean for the disciples, it would have extended beyond immediate family to being witnesses to those around them in the community they're in. We must be witnesses in our immediate families. Yes. But we can also give the gospel, be his witness to the rest of our Jerusalem, which would be the neighboring community around you. Where does God have you? It's your family. It's local friends. It's where you live, where you shop, where you hang out, where you work, being a witness in your workplace, at the grocery store you go to, or wherever you hang out. Maybe you frequent a local park to walk your dog um or to let them run around the dog park. Be a witness there. Be a witness to those who live near you. That's part of fulfilling the great commission in our Jerusalem. Which leads me to number two. Second, we carry out the great commission by making Jesus known in our neighborhoods. Now, I know I just kind of said in your neighborhood, this what I mean by this is surrounding neighborhoods perhaps you don't live in, but can go to relatively easily. It would include people that you don't know personally, but you can make Jesus known to, right? How would the disciples have understood this? It's really what I what I did this week is like how would they receiving this information for the first time have understood it? How would they have understood being a witness in Judea and Samaria? It would have been branching out from just the city of Jerusalem to now other regions, right? Other neighborhoods beyond them. Judea, like I said earlier, is south of Jerusalem and Samaria is to the north. Now, Jerusalem is in the region of Judea, kind of like how Phoenix is in Arizona. Yes. But it would be branching out to beyond your your town, your neighborhood personally where you live in Eat and Breathe, but beyond into other local neighborhoods and regions. Maybe they didn't frequent uh the markets or neighborhoods in southern Judea or northern Samaria, but they could get there. This is a place within reach that they can go to. These are places that extend their reach beyond initial Jerusalem to neighboring areas. What's this mean for us? Well, it means reaching our surrounding neighborhoods that maybe you don't live in but can get to. Maybe you don't live within a mile of radius of the church, but you can come with us when we go into the neighborhoods around here. Maybe you don't live near here, but you can come join us when we do go out near here. This is reaching people you don't know but have access to because you can get to them, right? Maybe you don't normally go to Deer Valley Park, for example, but you're willing to go be a witness there when we go. This would be expanding where you're making disciples, where you're being a witness by getting outside of just your normal everyday family, friends, co-workers, grocery store to places that you wouldn't normally frequent as much, but you can get over there if you intentionally try to. And what's cool about this is someone's Jerusalem is someone else's Samaria, but we all work together, right? If you think about it, what would happen when someone got saved in Samaria? Do they need to then go to the Jerusalem start line? What would they end up doing? They would be called to be a witness in their Samaria, which would be their Jerusalem. Um, in Samaria, which would be their Jerusalem. And then when they expand out maybe further north would be their Samaria if you're tracking right their Jerusalem is their Samaria. Their Samaria is a little bit beyond them. That is the plan. That's what God is saying. This is how the gospel is going to get out which leads to our our last point. We carry out the great commission by making Jesus known through missionary and church planting work. And that is our ends of the earth. The entire book of Acts is an illustration of Acts 18. It's really cool. You should read it. I challenge you to. Acts can basically be broken up into three sections. Acts 1-7 is the gospel spreading in Jerusalem, the first seven chapters. Then when you look at Acts 8 through12, it's spreading in Judea and Samaria. It's great. It's cool. And then Acts 13 to basically the end to 28 is the gospel spreading to the ends of the earth as Paul and Barnabas if you remember in Acts 13 are sent out. Remember the Holy Spirit says set apart for me Paul and Barnabas and they're going to go out and we know that it reached biblically what we know from is it reached to Rome and now we're here in 21st century America and it's gone to us throughout church history. The gospel has spread to the ends of the earth. So what is the ends of the earth? How would this be understood? The ends of the earth are places some are called to go to, but not everyone. Everyone can give the gospel in their Jerusalem. Most everyone can give the gospel in their Judea and Samaria. But not all of us can physically give the gospel to the ends of the earth by ourselves. If we all pack up and leave 19th and Grovers, if we all just say, "Okay, we need to leave. Let's all pack up and leave 19th and Grovers and go start something somewhere else 30 miles away from here or something. Who's going to be a witness here then?" Right? Right? Then you have to like resend people to 19th and Grovers. It doesn't make any sense. God has placed us here to reach people here. But the fact is you may be called to be a missionary sometime or you may be called to be a church planter or part of a church planting team. Maybe that is God's will for you. You never know. We are open to those things. But not all of us will be called to those things. Some of us are called to serve and minister right here, right where you are, and then support those who leave town and go somewhere else. Right? I said the Lyall and Heather Harrenstein are called to go to mayor. I'm not. I'm called to love, serve, shepherd, preach 19th Avenue and Grovers. But I can support them, right? I can support them and we can go and we took our our students to mayor to do like a work project and we were sl swinging sledgehammers and doing all that stuff. It was great. Um it was a fun time. Teach these kids how to love some hard work, right? We can go support them in that way, but we're not called to be there permanently. But when we support those who go, we get to share in the reward. Isn't that great? You get to share in their reward. We can't bring the gospel to the ends of the earth by ourselves. That's why it's a team effort with all of the body of Christ, the church worldwide, right? We are all called to do this, but we don't do this alone or in a vacuum. And that's how they understood it in Acts. In Acts 13, not everyone is sent out as a church planter like Paul was. Not every some are going to stay back in Jerusalem and in the surrounding areas. Not all of them. But the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart those two guys for me." Paul and Barnabas. He doesn't say, "Set apart everyone." But it's not that the Holy Spirit doesn't want anything to do with anyone else at the church at Antioch. He's like, "Just send me those guys. The rest of you, I'll see you later." Right? Like, no. The Holy Spirit has a plan for the rest as well. But he's saying, "Set apart from me these two guys and we're going to send them out. Not everyone is called to leave town. Some are. Others are called to support." They knew they needed to send and support Paul and Barnabas as they went out, but they also know that not all of them are going. And that's really the heart of this Let's Go campaign. We've been in this a lot. And as we look forward to next Sunday and then we we have Good Friday and Easter and and this won't go on forever, okay? Um we will focus on some different things. But I want you to think through how you can be part of spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth because that's the purpose of this campaign is to spread the gospel through church planting efforts led by those called to go do it. This is how we are part of the ends of the earth mission. Our job if we're not called to go with them is to support them. The command overall, right? The overarching command is what? Make disciples. And God has chosen the local church to do it, right? The local church is plan A for the gospel. Like there's no plan B, right? Like God could have just said, you know, I'm going to send um the gospel Goodyear blimp around the world. It's going to spread the gospel to everyone. Everyone's going to see it from where they are. I'm just going to share the gospel that way. He could have, but he didn't. The church, you and I, are plan A for the gospel. And he's given us this command. And that's part of what church planting is all about, right? You evangelize the area, you make disciples, and you provide a place for them to grow. Why? So that maybe they'll be a sending church to areas beyond them. Maybe God knows there's already someone that will come to mar and come to Christ or maybe already know Christ and be discipled and get and grow and and be pre and then they go maybe Lyall prepares them to go further north or something to crossurch Sedona. I was thinking about at 9:00 am cross church Sedona. Sedona is beautiful, very dark spiritually, right? You get a cross church up there, get some truth into that city because there's a lot of darkness in Sedona, right? Just as an example. But you never know what God will do. And maybe you're not called to leave here, but you can support those who are leaving like Pastor Jav and Tay and Eacia de la Cruz and like Pastor Lyall and Heather um and and cross church mayor and others to come. This is how you and I can be part of being his witness to the ends of the earth by supporting other witnesses who go places that they are called to go to. I want to invite the worship team back up as we prepare to to close in our our time of continued worship through music. But I want to challenge you. Simple ch just just take one and pray over it. Just take one and pray over it. Um do what God has called you to do. And we look forward to next week as we lay them uh before the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your word. You have placed each one of us right where you have us. And there may be a time that comes where you call us to go somewhere else. Pray that we would be obedient at that in that time when it comes if it comes. And if not, Lord, if you've called us, you say to those listening in their own hearts, stay at stay at 19th and Grovers and make disciples there. Pray that you would also lay it upon our hearts though to be mission-minded as we support those who go out. Pray that you would bless our time. May everything we do be honoring and glorifying to God first and edifying to each person here. In Jesus name we pray. Help us Lord. Amen. Let's us stand as we sing our last song.