It’s so easy to make things about a biblical debate or even apologetics, right? It could be more about giving up sin than it is giving up your sin so you can follow Jesus. It could be more about baptism rather than Lordship leading you to baptism. It could be more about topical things rather than Jesus being the main topic. And it could be so daunting with these different ideas and conversations, you know? And so I can struggle with making knowledge the basis of the conversation versus helping them make Jesus their basis. Amen, guys. So good morning. I’m grateful to be here with you and being able to share the word. It’s funny because when we planned this Sunday, I just came up with the topic. I prayed about it. I ran it by Tony, but that was it. We didn’t really communicate what it was going to be about today. But to see Steve and Mitchell come up here and just start sharing about family, and about how much the church has impacted him, and then have Tony come right after, and then talk about how the church works together and that we should be leaning on one another, I was just like, Wow, God, you’re at work because today we’re going to be talking about the fact that we are a family on a mission.
And I’m telling you, we did not plan any of that. And so when we talk about the mission, it could often be something that is tied to this challenge. Let’s go, let’s go do it. Let’s go out to every single thing. Or it could be a little bit intense. But today, what I wanted to do was encourage the church by affirming the church that we are already doing the mission of God. And I believe truly that we are a family on a mission. And so if you’re visiting with us today, I pray that this is an introduction to you of our family here at the Broward Church. And I want to tell you a little bit about my family. Here at the church, we’re a family that loves God’s word. We love to be with one another. We love to eat and celebrate and to challenge. We love to eat. Amen, especially our singles, man. We love to eat. We love to celebrate. We love to challenge and we love to adventure. We try to treat each other’s sons and daughters as our own nephews and nieces, and we believe in raising our children in the word of God.
We We have men and women who are bridesmaids and groom at each other’s weddings. We have brothers and sisters who have taken on each other in the midst of unfortunate events. And we have brothers and sisters in this room who have helped us continuously We’re going to continuously get closer to Jesus. The reason that we are a family is because Jesus says, whoever does his will is a part of his family. And verse in Matthew 12:50, it says, Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother. And so we’re not just any type of family, but we are a family on a mission. And as a family on a mission, it’s important for us to be clear about where we’re going and what we’re actually doing, right? In the beginning of this year, we took a day to take time to talk about the future of our family, and we called it, Picture This. You guys remember this six months ago, right? And so this is our Vision Sunday. This is where we spoke about the church’s history, the vision for the future of our church, the mission of the church, along with our strategic areas of focus.
And when we tackled these strategic areas of focus, this is what we said we wanted to work on this year as a family on a mission. Our first objective is to develop the priesthood of every believer. So we wanted to go ahead and bring back midweeks into our church schedule, into the fold. And the whole point of that was to try to equip each member or at least give the opportunity to equip each member here in the church that wants to be prepared for the mission. The second objective is to become a beacon in Broward County. And so we have our worship team here called Broward Worship. Let’s go Broward Worship. So our goal was to host some concerts and get it out into the community and hopefully the in the world, right? We also wanted to use our BCA, which is a kids academy here, and just our building to reach our community. Our third objective as a church was to mobilize every disciple to make disciples. We wanted to rejuvenate our singles in campus ministry. We wanted to equip members. And overall, we want to win our county for Christ. And last, our objective, our fourth objective, is to foster acts to communities.
We want to build and grow the community groups that we have here at the church. And so with these four objectives, what we’re trying to do is fulfill God’s will. And as I mentioned before, God says, whoever does his will is a part of his family. So the work we’ve been doing here at the Brouwer Church is uniting us as a family. God has been working on us and through us. He’s been working through our security team, through our hospitality, through our worship, through our Kingdom Kids, through our community group leaders. And all these things were able to actually fulfill what God wants us to do. But the truth is, none of us can do that alone. So we set these objectives, and I’m glad to say, we’re actually following through. God has been providing. It feels like miracles left and right. You’re like, wow, that was so great. Who’s this person? Who are they? They just got baptized. It just feels like there’s so many great things happening at the church, and I wanted us to be united in that thought. I’ve seen disciples go to midweek and then begin to sharpen each other with what they learned.
I’ve heard proud worship was being listened to, not not just here in Florida, but in a radio station in Los Angeles. They were on an app called the Pray app. They also have been hosting concerts here at the church that not only shifted the culture of this church, but really moved our hearts. I’ve seen singles, campus, married, young, old, sick and rich, share their faith with their neighbors and their friends. I’ve seen disciples step up to the plate of leadership so that their city and community had a small group in it. I’ve seen so many of us doing God’s will, and this is what Jesus says makes us family. But why do we do all these things? Why do we serve one another in ups and downs? Why do we give financially? Why do we share our faith together with family and friends? And I think that the answer is simple. It’s because we love Jesus. We just want to do what he asks of us. See, the mission comes from the passage known as the Great Commission. It says, Then Jesus came to them and 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 of the Son, and of the Holy spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of age. And so this is what Jesus came, he died, he resurrected, and then he sends us to go. Once we’ve made Jesus Lord of our lives, we’re supposed to be going. We’re supposed to be doing it. And that’s what I love about this church, is that I can see it, I feel like on a weekly basis. And so The mission, what is the mission exactly, though? The mission is sons and daughters of God telling every person on earth about the Messiah who died, who lived and died and resurrected from the dead. The mission is teaching the world the peaceful, humble and loving ways of God. The mission is using man to bring heaven. The mission is God using man to bring heaven on Earth. And so with great hope, with great joy, and with great resolve, Jesus set the example first. See, Jesus was a man on a mission.
He had so much zeal and so much courage. He journeyed miles and miles telling people about the Kingdom of God. He did not discriminate on who he interacted with. He told the rich, he told the poor, the married and the widowed, the hypocrites and the faithful. When Jesus walked the Earth, and even today, many have heard his message and have decided to follow For all who are called, he also calls us to go. He calls us to go out into our communities, our jobs, our families, and to go out into all nations and to tell people about the gospel message. And so because Jesus went, we are a family that goes. Jesus went from town to town and city to city, and his words have not only gone from country to country, but it’s gone from generation to generation. As a ministry, we look to imitate the heart of Christ, the mind of Christ, and the actions of Jesus. And so to embody these things, I wanted to show us a map. And we’ve been looking at a map similar to this throughout the ministry of Jesus. But what I feel like this shows is not just Jesus’s work ethic or great drive, but what I think it shows is his compassion for the loss.
And so with Jesus’s compassion, he traveled from Cana to Jericho, to Jerusalem, to Nazareth, to Capernaum. He passed through Judea, Samaria, and Galilee. And these places were filled with so many different cultures, with so many different religions, and so many different backgrounds, right? And after I looked at Jesus’s route just a few times, I noticed that the geography reminded me of South Florida. And I’m not saying the beaches or the mountains. I’m not saying any of that, right? I didn’t see this and think that. But I thought, just the layout, right? The layout reminded me of South Florida. You can see it, right? You can see where I’m going. And so I use Google Maps, the brain of the world. And what it said is that if we were to walk from Capernaum to Jerusalem, it’s 105 miles. It’s 105 miles, right? And then if we compared to some Florida cities that we know, I put Homestead and Delray. Because I was like, Where’s something I really wouldn’t want to walk to or walk from? And so I was like, From Homestead to here, it already feels like Too much of a journey in my car.
I’m on 95. I’m like, are we there? Did we cross the state line yet? There’s so many. So I mapped it out from Homestead to Delray, and it said that it was only 85 miles. I know the next time I’m on 95, I’m going to be like, why Jesus walked all this? Jesus did it, man. Jesus did it. But the reason I wanted to overlay these maps is so that we have a perspective that is brought to our reality. This is a perspective that we can bring to our present day. This is not just a map of where Jesus walked, but like we said before, it’s also a representation of his heart for lost. In Matthew 9:35-38, it says, Jesus went through all the towns and villages teaching in the synagogs. So Galilee, Samaria, Capernaum. He was teaching, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like a sheep without a shepherd. Philippians 2 says, who being in the very nature of God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.
Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness. And so as Jesus traveled around Israel, he looked on these crowds with empathy. Jesus was quick to listen and slow to speak. He had wisdom to communicate grace and truth and also the humility to leave heaven to serve those here on earth. He did not just travel from Jerusalem to Capernaum one time. That 105 mile journey wasn’t just once. But as we know, he went over city to city, city to city and over and over again. And so these maps also put the work of Jesus into a scope that we can imitate. As a church, and especially as a collective of churches, we can cover the same grounds and even more if we continue to work together. The mission is a collective effort. And here at the Brouwer Church, our main mission field is our county. Through the vision of Jesus, we have decided to cover different areas in our county, and so that way we are collectively active in the mission. While on the mission, we look to not only build community, but to reach our community as well.
So as a church family, we have decided that our mission field will be done through our community groups. And I wanted to give you guys a perspective of what our map looks like here in Brouhaha County. So this is us. And what I did is I just put some dots where different community groups are in the church. And after doing a count, we have about 40 groups all throughout Brouhaha County. And that’s amazing, guys. Like 40 groups. Because what these groups represent are communities who are living out acts, too. These are homes where the word of God is being preached, where people are praying for one another, where family is being fostered. And guys, that is such an amazing thing. And as a church, we have to partner together in this mission field. Those groups really wouldn’t exist without the help of those who lead them. So if you’re a community group leader here, can you guys just please stand up if you’re able? I These are men and women who have been inspired by Jesus and have taken on leadership roles in the mission. They have sacrificed their time, their homes, and resources to lead our family’s mission.
And if you’re a part of a community group in our church, can you also please stand up? And we’re just going to stay standing for a little while. So if you’re a part of a community group, do you mind just standing up for us? Amen. Yeah, let’s give ourselves a round of applause. So just stay standing for one moment. So as we look around, this is us bringing these maps into reality. We have family in North Broward and East Broward, and West Broward and in South Broward. And this is our mission field. All right. Your city and your neighborhood is your mission field. With a collective effort and with the courage and the patience that God provides, we can share the gospel in every home. When we pray together, when we talk about the word and we break bread together, we are fulfilling the vision of Jesus. So I just wanted to thank you guys for all the work that you do. And I wanted to encourage us to just look around the room and be like, man, these are my brothers and sisters in the mission. You guys can go ahead and have a seat.
So as we see this representation of the body at work, something that Jesus calls us as a family to be is a family that makes disciples. So for all who have made Jesus Lord, For all who have decided and resurrected in the waters of baptism, for all who follow Christ, we are called to make disciples. In Matthew 28:18-20, When Jesus uses the word make, it translates as the Greek word maté tuo. Now, the definition of the word is to teach someone intentionally, causing them to become a disciple. Now, We know that we can only plant the seeds and water the seeds, and it’s God who makes it grow. But my point is that there’s intentionality behind making disciples. There’s intentionality behind those seeds being planted and those seeds being watered. Making disciples is something that we choose to participate in. We have to sacrifice time in our day so that we can disciples. We have to take responsibility for the equipping of ourselves so that we can teach others. And what we have to be most intentional about is the heart and what we are communicating while we make disciples. When we talk about making disciples, what we’re talking about is helping men and women fall in love with Jesus.
That’s what it is. We don’t want to create men and women who are smaller versions of ourselves or of somebody else. And I’ve fallen short in this area so many times. So many times. I feel so convicted by not talking about Jesus enough while spreading the gospel. It’s so easy to make things about a biblical debate or even apologetics, right? It could be more about giving up sin than it is giving up your sin so you can follow Jesus. It could be more about baptism rather than Lordship leading you to baptism. It could be more about topical things rather than Jesus Jesus being the main topic. And it could be so daunting with these different ideas and conversations. And so I can struggle with making knowledge the basis of the conversation versus helping them make Jesus their basis. And so knowledge is not inherently bad, but there are times where it’s not supposed to be all that’s discussed. Knowledge is not the indicator for spiritual maturity. Knowledge is just a step in spiritual formation. See, true sanctification, where it comes from, is a relationship with Christ. And when we apply his word, we become more like him.
And so people can know so many things about the Bible or about church history, et cetera. But does that really make them spiritually mature? Does that really make them into the disciples that Jesus wants them to be? And so a question I had to ask myself while putting this together was in the eyes of Christ, did he see the pharisees as spiritually mature or did he see the woman at the well as spiritually mature? Because the pharisees, they knew the word, right? They had it on the doors. They covered themselves with it. They were out just saying how much they knew. But Jesus rebuked them the most. But then there was the woman at the well who encountered Jesus, who had a conversation with Jesus. And not just did her mind change, but her heart also changed. And that heart led to her sharing with the whole town about who Jesus was. She went out and she made disciples. So the women at the well, maybe she didn’t know every single thing like the pharisees, but who is willing to make Jesus her everything. And so it’s not that we shouldn’t strive for sharing information with others or acquiring knowledge.
That’s not what I’m trying to get at. But what I am trying to get is that as we communicate the gospel, Jesus should be the most important thing that we are communicating. In 1 Corinthians 2, Paul actually, he says this, and I feel like it encompasses, I guess, the ideas I’m trying to say. It says, And so it was with me, brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I claimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucify. I came to you in weakness, with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the spirit’s power, so that your faith may not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. And so if you feel maybe a little discouraged or awkward about sharing your faith, I want to encourage you. It’s not It’s always about knowing all the biblical things or debates or facts. But if you have a testimony with Christ, if you lived with him, if you’ve experienced him, if you’ve read his words, then I want to encourage you.
You have enough to tell someone about who he is. Amen. So as we go and make disciples, we have to be intentional about helping people really see Jesus as Lord. See, when Jesus is Lord of people’s lives, we see significant change in individuals. And change, it doesn’t always happen overnight, and it isn’t always an easy thing. I wish it was easy, but it’s not. But when change does happen, we can accredit these things to Christ. See, we can give Christ the credit for those who are reconciled to God, and then they bring reconciliation to the broken family. For those who once turned to harmful methods, but now they turn to prayer. For those who once brought darkness into the world, but now they can bring light. And when we help make disciples, we are helping create people that will make real change in the world. And I want to introduce you to some of these people who have decided to follow Jesus and make real change. So on the top right, we have Tony, our evangelist here. Let’s go, Tony. So Tony is wearing a Lakers jersey, but he’s not a Lakers fan. I don’t know what was going on.
But Tony was around his teens in this time, I would assume. I just found a picture on Facebook and it looked like he was in his teens. And so like he was sharing earlier in his teens is that’s when someone came and shared Christ with him. That’s when he decided to start doing his best to follow Christ. And so as we meet different people, we may You think, oh, no, this person, maybe it’s a teen. They don’t want to hear about it. Or maybe it’s my coworker. They don’t want to hear about it. Or maybe it’s the police officer that pulled you over for whatever reason. He doesn’t want to hear about it. But you never know who you’re helping and how God will use them. So Tony has helped all of us here at the Brouwer Church, I would say, especially me. He’s been mentoring me for the last four or five years. He’s taught me about being responsible as a man. We’ve had conversations about finances. We’ve had a conversation about future marriage and how to do those different things well. And so he’s impacted me. But not only has he had the impact here at the church, but he’s been the vice president of Hope Worldwide, helping different people around the world get on what they need.
He’s helped lead the teen ministry, the campus ministry, and the young professional ministry. And now Tony is leading our church. And so as we go sharing the gospel with people, no matter who it may be, God God is trying to do something with them, but we have to be courageous enough to just tell them about Jesus. The other person I want to lift up is Marcia Brevet. Let’s go Marcia. So Marcia is on the right-hand side, and she has done so much, but she was also reached out to as a teenager. And Marcia has gone to help her singles ministry in Jamaica. She has gone to help different sisters in our church, the younger sisters in our church just mature in their faith and handle hardship in life. But the thing that always impacts me, and I feel like impacts the church the most, is her work with the orphans in Jamaica. Yeah, that’s amazing work. She’s been doing that work for years, and I see the different pictures and the videos and disciples that go here from there to go serve. And it always just impacts my heart. And so when we’re sharing But again, when we’re sharing Jesus with people, we never know who they might become and who they might help.
And my last person or people I want to lift up is our singles ministry. Let’s go undivided. So for those who don’t know, our Singles Ministry is just built around the idea that we want to use this area in our life to glorify God. These are men and women who have rejected the world in so many different ways. I literally couldn’t even say up here. But what they’ve done is made every effort to help those around them know Jesus. They’ve traveled to Jamaica with Marcia to help with the orphanage. They’ve been to the church in Brazil to encourage and get to know their brothers and sisters. They have served, I feel like, in every area of the church. And that’s weekdays and weekends, helping people move or fixing different things. And they are disciples who have been making real change. And so here at the Brouwer Church, this is something that we really make an effort to do, is to become men and women who look like Christ and help others become like Jesus. So I wanted to give us another practical point as a church on how we’ve been making disciples. So in the beginning of the year, every year, we want to help as many people come to Christ as possible.
But it’s literally the beginning of June, and we have had 28 baptisms this year. So these aren’t all the photos, these are just photos I could find. But these are men and women who carry out the mission to their families. This is not just a number 28. These are real people with real lives, with real hearts who have changed for Jesus. These are men and women who carry out the teaching to their children. These are men and women who are destined to help make change in the world. And so if you think, man, no one wants to know about Christ. The world is too worldly. They’re too locked into the politics or their social media or their jobs or their family. There’s 28 people this year who have made Jesus Lord. And that’s just a testament, not to our work, but to the work of God through us. And you might just be someone here in the crowd today. It’s your first time. You’ve I’ve been coming around for a while, but I really want to encourage you to give up whatever it is and follow Christ. I want to encourage you to answer the call that God has been putting on your heart so you can be closer with him.
Give up the fear of the future. Give up that dependency on things that aren’t good for you, that aren’t bringing you closer to Jesus. And open your heart to the vision that God has for you. Because these people up here are people who have been reconciled to God, and these people are willing to take on the mission, but also make change. But the truth is God also has a mission and a vision and change that he wants to see be done through you. But if you continue to just wait or be too afraid or you don’t want to give up those different things, then you’ll never know what God has in store for you. We’ve seen what God has done with Tony and with Marcia and with the Singles Ministry. So who knows what God might do with you. So as we come to a close, I want to just encourage us one more time that we are a family on a mission. We’re a family on a mission because Jesus was a man on a mission. He walked the Earth healing, serving, rebuking, and giving us the words of life. Jesus then made the perfect sacrifice for everyone who would ever live, including those in this very room today.
That sacrifice was death on a cross. Through his death, he’s given everyone the opportunity to be saved. It gives opportunity to the liar, to the immoral, to the adulterous, to those who live a homosexual lifestyle, to the hypocrites, to the greedy, to the murders and the prostitutes, for those who have wandered far from the faith and desire to come back. All of us have fallen short of the glory of God, but we’ve all been given the opportunity to be saved. And those who receive that reward are those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger for thirst and righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peace makers, the persecuted, those who forgive. And ultimately, it will be for those who humbly make Jesus Lord of their lives and obey his commands. The thing that I love about this church is not only have we heard the message, but we’ve been doing our best to hold on to it. There are men and women in this church who have held on to the teachings of Jesus on our truly his disciples. There are men and women who have been faithful for a few days, and there are men and women who have been faithful for 30 years.
And if you’re someone who has been holding on to the teachings and someone who has fallen short but continue to crawl, scrape, and to fight to practice them, then Jesus calls us family. And again, I know that some of you may be visiting for the first time, so I want to continue to tell you about who our family is. We are a family in love with Jesus Christ. We love the word of God. We make every effort to love our brothers and sisters and our neighbors. We all have our shortcomings, but that’s why we are in love with grace. We love grace because we all need it and it teaches us in the way in which we should go. We are a family from different nationalities, financial statements, races and cultures. And along the way, we bump heads more often than we should. But because of our common ground, we always have the chance to work things out. We’re a church filled with generations of persistent prayer, of wholehearted sacrifice, and resolute perseverance. I believe that our family belongs to the capital C Church, and we belong to the Kingdom of God. We have the greatest lineage of all time.
In our lineage is Paul the Apostle, King David, Samson, Elijah, Abraham and the list can go on. And we love to talk about our lineage. We love to talk about the beginning of time and Hebrew poetry and the prophets and the Gospels. And some of our friends and family may even say that we talk about it a little too much. But when you have seen what we’ve seen, when you’ve heard what we’ve heard and you’ve experienced what we experience, it is hard not to say something. But when you have heard the message from the man that not only changes hearts, but changes souls, it’s really hard not to speak about him. One of the things that I love most about this church is that we can’t help but try to spread the message of Jesus. We do it awkwardly sometimes. We do it firmly. We do it to the best of our given ability. And the mission, what it isn’t, it’s not our identity, but we are a family that’s on a mission. This church family has sent missionaries all over the world to spread the name of Jesus. It has given up money and careers and homes to participate in the family and in the mission.
And I pray that we can continue to fulfill the vision of Jesus here in Broward County. Thank you, guys. So this is a time where we take communion, which is the bread that represents the body of Christ and the blood that represents. And so as we as we take communion, it’s a time to remember what Jesus has done. Jesus was a man on a mission who lived courageously and died for us in this room. And so as we take communion, I encourage you guys to just remember and talk to God with a grateful heart for all the work he’s been doing, not only through you, but through our church as a whole. Let’s go ahead in prayer. Father, thank you so much for this time to be able to talk about your family, to talk about the mission. Lord, I pray that we can go and make disciples and not get caught up in the head knowledge of things, but get caught up in the heart of things, which is your son. Lord, we just want to say thank you for his sacrifice that we all needed, Lord. Without him, there would be no conversations with you.
There wouldn’t be any joy or peace or hope. There would be nothing to actually live for. Because of your great love, you sacrificed your only son so that we may have the opportunity to know who you are. God, we love you so much. And your son’s in me, pray.’s name we pray, Amen.