In the sermon 'How Awakening in the Church Is Related to Awakening in the World,' Jason Dohm explores the interconnectedness between spiritual awakening within the church and revival in the broader world. He emphasizes that believers are called to be disciple-makers as part of the Great Commission, as outlined in Matthew 28, and that this mission is supported by the promise of the Holy Spirit's empowerment in Acts 1. Dohm argues that spiritual vitality in the church should naturally lead to a broader impact on the world through evangelism and disciple-making. He explains that engaging in the Great Commission by faith can lead to personal spiritual awakening, as believers experience the Holy Spirit working through them. Dohm outlines five propositions to support his thesis, including that awakening in the church and world are interrelated, and that it is wrong to seek spiritual empowerment without engaging in the mission of the church. He urges believers to engage in the Great Commission as an expression of gratitude for God's grace, suggesting practical steps like scheduling regular evangelistic activities, praying for unbelievers, and seeking more of the Holy Spirit. Ultimately, he encourages seeking awakening through both the Great Commission and the ordinary means of grace.

Please open your Bibles to Acts chapter 1. We'll be reading 1 through 8. The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up, after he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, you have heard from me, for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

And he said, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive the power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." O Lord Father, we lift up Jason as he comes and preaches. Now Lord, pray God that you would give him wisdom, Lord that you would give him the power to speak with the full authority of scripture. Oh Lord please use him to speak to each and every one of us. Oh Father please bless him, bless this time now, Please help us as we listen to be attentive, Lord, to seek your face throughout the preaching of this text. Oh God, please let this be a sweet smelling aroma to you.

In Jesus name, amen. Well we're doing something this morning we almost never do, which is to break from a pattern of sequential exposition and just work our way patiently through a book of the Bible. But I was away this week and I have also been wanting to preach a sermon here that I gave in Pensacola in November. In November, Jeff Pollard and Clarence Simmons, elders there at Mount Zion Bible Church, invited me, well actually, I sort of invited myself unwittingly, but that's a longer story. I didn't mean to, but they sort of got into a position where they had to have me preach here.

But I'm glad! It was wonderful. They have a family conference every year with a certain theme and focus. This year their family conference was on awakening. Awakening in the church, revival in the church, and awakening outside the church in the unbelieving world, revival in the world.

And so there were a series of messages across two and a half days all about it. And I wish you could hear them all, but you can at least hear the one that I gave, which is entitled, How Awakening in the Church, this one kind of awakening among believers, is related to awakening in the world, the outpouring of the Spirit for the salvation of unbelievers. They are distinct things. They have some differences, but they are very closely related. So I'm going to spend the time looking at that relationship.

As I begin working on the message, it is very daunting to be invited to preach in a conference on awakening. Because it's tantamount to saying, I'm awakened! And so As I began to work on this message, I began to feel very aware of my own spiritual sleepiness. I began to feel insufficient for my assignment. And so I just began preaching to them like I'm beginning here saying, I preach on this with trembling.

And So rather than saying, I'm the awakened one who can show you how to be awakened like me, I really come in the spirit of saying, let's draw a line in the sand together and seek the Lord's face to be changed. Let's ask the Lord to help us in our time. God, those of us who have repented of our sins and believed only on Jesus for salvation. Pray to you now that you would come and wipe away our spiritual sleepiness, the slumbering that we find in our own souls, that you would come in the power of your Spirit to awaken us and to set us about the work that you have given us to do as your people. That your spirit would be coursing through our veins to cause us to be what we ought to be in this world.

So that Christ would be lifted up and exalted. I pray that you would use our time this morning for this great purpose. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, Amen. There are two texts I want to take us to this morning. The first is in Matthew 28.

It's the Great Commission text. So turn in your Bibles to Matthew 28. Matthew chapter 28. Before I read it, I'm going to give you a disclaimer about my comments. This is not going to be anywhere close to a comprehensive treatment to the Great Commission text.

There are whole week long conferences about this text. I'm only going to touch on, this is a topical sermon, so I'm going to touch on the things from this text that are helpful in developing a biblical view of our topic and really nothing more than that. Matthew chapter 28, I'll be reading verses 16 through 20. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him.

Some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. The first thing I would like to notice out of this text is that this is to disciples.

So much of Jesus' preaching is to a mixed multitude. There are followers of Christ and there are many unbelievers in his sermons throughout the Gospels, but not this one. This is given directly to the disciples, specifically to the eleven who made it to the resurrection. Of course, Judas was a false disciple, and He did not make it to this point. This is to his 11 other disciples, these men who had lived with him for three years.

Jesus gives this to him. We should notice from this text that this is given specifically and exclusively to believers, to pupils, to students, to disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we learn from what Jesus says here is that we are not the end point of the gospel. In other words, we are disciples, but that's not the end of the matter. Disciples are disciple makers by nature.

What God gives disciples to do is to make disciples. All disciples are to be disciple makers. This is how the Gospel made it to you. There are a few testimonies of people who stayed in a hotel room and there was a Gideon Bible there and they read the Gideon Bible and they had never heard the Gospel before, but that's almost no one's testimony. Almost everyone's testimony, including my testimony, is that someone who had been touched by the Gospel, someone who had been saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to you.

Like someone spoke to me and shared the gospel with me. This is how the gospel made it to you. Jesus made it clear that disciples are not the end point of the gospel, but disciples are to be disciple makers. They are to engage in evangelism. And then when God's Spirit is present to give the salvation of a sinner, then that new disciple is baptized, and then they begin on this lifelong process of learning, being taught all things that Christ has commanded.

So first, this is two disciples. Second, disciples are disciple makers by nature. This is built into the gospel and This propagates the Gospel from one person to another, from one generation to another, and it ensures that there will be many worshippers of the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes back, because disciples are disciple makers. This is the means of awakening the world. This is why there have been awakenings among the spiritually dead throughout the centuries.

It is that God has given His people work to do. It is great commission work. It is evangelistic and disciple making work. And they have been doing it. This doesn't mean that God needs us.

God could do this without us. And yet, God has decided to bless us with the privilege of co-laboring with His Holy Spirit in the salvation of sinners. What a privilege it is to be made ambassadors, to be able to have such a great message put on our lips so that the things that have become a reality in our own lives we could speak of out of gratitude to God. This is God's means of raising the spiritual dead. Why would he even use us?

Why would he even care to use us in this? But he's given us this privilege to speak of Christ to the spiritually dead. And he uses those words to raise people who are dead in their spirits to life. Who are dead in their sins and transgressions. Now let's go to Acts chapter 1.

So Matthew 28, the work that God has given His people to do. Disciples are disciple makers. Now Acts chapter 1. It's already been read, I'm going to read it again. Acts chapter 1 verses 1 through 8.

Again, not anywhere near a comprehensive treatment of the text, but it's a topical sermon. We're lifting a few things out of these verses that are relevant to the topic. Acts chapter 1 beginning in verse 1. The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up, after he through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, you have heard from me.

For John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." And then in the verses that follow Jesus is taken up, he ascends to heaven. Again, this is to his disciples. Just like Matthew 28, this is not to a mixed multitude in any way.

It is Jesus speaking directly to pupils, learners, his disciples. And it is the culmination, the peak of forty days of him appearing to them multiple times over the course of this forty days and speaking to them of the things of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus now, just right after these words that he has just spoken in chapter 1 verse 8 here, is again fully glorious. He has completed the work that his Father has given him to do on the cross. He has died.

He has risen again. He has ascended into heaven and He is now seated at the right hand of God in glory. His enemies are being made, His footstools, and yet His disciples have no liberty to speak the Good News. This is only a very short period of time in human history. It's just a few days.

But, Jesus is fully glorious, but the disciples are constrained, and they're not even allowed to herald the good news. They have the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, but they cannot speak it because Jesus Himself, their Lord, their King has constrained them. So they have the gospel, but they can't go. They are to wait to be immersed with the Holy Spirit. Now, the Holy Spirit has been on them, allowing them to heal the sick, cast out demons at various points during the Gospel.

But this is something different, this is something special, and this is something that modern day disciples, me and you, experience. Immersion in the Holy Spirit. The ongoing indwelling, the unbroken indwelling of the Holy Spirit. That is new and they are to wait for it. Because they need it to do the work that God has given them to do.

So, Matthew 28, the commission, the great work, the primary work that God has given His people to band together, join together to do, to bring the Gospel to the nations. And then in Acts 1, the promise of the Spirit that God will meet you there when you go to work on this. That the Holy Spirit will indwell you and give you power to do this work. And it's so important that you're not even allowed to go and herald the gospel until you've been immersed by what God has promised to send. So this is the relationship of these two texts.

Matthew 28 is the mission and Acts 1 is the promise that we are not on this mission alone, but the Holy Spirit will Join us and give us power to do the work that God has commanded us to do. So we are to go to the world by faith. You have to go by faith. If you look out there into this dark world, you won't go. So you can't do this walking by sight.

You only do this by walking by faith. But by faith We go with boldness, taking God at His word that He will meet us there and give us power to overcome all this darkness that we see out there. So we go, the Lord's people go, by faith to Jerusalem. That means where our feet are planted now, where God has put you today, and to Judea and Al-Samaria, the greater region beyond where your feet are planted today, and to the ends of the earth so that no nook or cranny, no corner of this world is left untouched by the good news that Jesus has come and died for sinners. This is the work that God has given us to do.

And as we go by faith, the Holy Spirit will meet us there in those places as we are heralding the Gospel. And He'll be there to raise these dry bones of the elect and give them life. We just go, we proclaim a message, there's no power in and of itself for that, but the Holy Spirit is going to meet us there to raise the dead as we are obedient and declaring the good news of the Gospel in the nooks and crannies of this world, starting where our feet are today, going to the region beyond that and going to the ends of the earth. So, if I feel spiritually sleepy, If I feel in need of awakening, it's possible that I should start by asking this question, Am I going? In other words, if I don't feel that the power of the Spirit coursing through my life, maybe I should go to the heart of this promise and say, am I going to Jerusalem and to Judea and all Samaria and to the ends of the earth?

Am I about the business that God has given us to do and yet given it with a promise that the Holy Spirit will course through our veins when we do it? This is my thesis. Meaning I am going to spend the rest of my time trying to prove that what I'm getting ready to say is true. This is my thesis. The people of God should seek awakening for ourselves by pursuing by faith an awakening in the world.

I'm going to say it again because all the rest of the time it's going to be given to try to prove that this is true and biblical. The people of God, we who have repented and believed, should seek awakening for ourselves. Yes, we should seek awakening by pursuing by faith and awakening in the world. In other words, We should chase Acts 1 by getting about Matthew 28. We should chase empowerment, the Holy Spirit coursing through our veins, by starting down the track of the Great Commission by faith.

Trusting that God, taking God at His Word, that He'll meet us there and give us the power of the Holy Spirit. By doing that, we might find that awakening is much less mystical than we had imagined. I don't know if you are guilty of that. I am often very guilty of that thinking of awakening as being this mystical thing. It's pixie dust that falls out of the sky.

And yes, it is God's to dispense. So in that sense, that's right. But in the sense that We can't do anything. No. There's a promise by God to send his spirit when we're about his work So it's not true that we have no No recourse if we find ourselves spiritually sleepy.

Awakening might actually be much less mystical than we had imagined. For clarity, I'm not saying that this is the whole pie. The awakening pie. I'm not saying that this is the whole pie, the awakening pie. I am not saying that this is the key and if we do this all of our awakening problems are over and solved forever.

There is more to awakening than this. But what I am saying is that this is an often overlooked slice of the pie that you can go right to Scripture and say, here's something we can do about our spiritual sleepiness. So there are other things to know, but this is one of them that we often overlook. I don't think we think about, by faith engaging in the Great Commission, as something we can do for our own awakening. I almost never think of it in those terms, but I want us to think of it in those terms.

Now I'm going to give you five propositions. In other words, Because Matthew 28, the work that God has given us to do, has this relationship with Acts chapter 1, a promise of God to give us the Holy Spirit to empower us to do the work that He has given us to do, because those two texts have this relationship, these five things must follow as implications. Hopefully you are convinced that Matthew 28 and Acts 1 have a relationship. I am saying because that is true, these five things, these five propositions that I am about to give you have to come out of that. Proposition number one.

Awakening in the church is closely interrelated with awakening in the world. Awakening in the church is closely interrelated with awakening in the world. So they are distinct, but they are connected. We should see them in relationship to one another. This is largely just restating of what I've been saying about Matthew 28, the commission that God has given us, and Acts 1, the promise that God has given us.

When God awakens His church, it's normally to expand the boundaries of His kingdom. Do you buy that? When God helps us to shake off our sleepiness, causes us to shake off our spiritual sleepiness. One of the primary things he is usually doing when that happens is expanding the boundaries of his kingdom. He is making His church a mighty church for the spreading of the gospel.

We should not expect to see the church in a state of spiritual vitality, but the loss are unaffected by it. How could that be possible? The church would be spiritually vibrant, but it would have no impact on the loss. No, no, no. Look across the centuries.

Look at your church history. When the church is alive and strong and vibrant, unbelievers are either converted or offended, and then they persecute us. And for my part, I say, God give us more of both, so that we might know that the power of your spirit is working in your people. Give us more converted people and give us more offended people who persecute us, so that we might know that your church has vitality, is alive. So an important part of praying for revival in the world, unbelievers raised from the dead spiritually, is to pray for revival in the church.

When our hearts are awake, when our hearts are alive to God, we have a renewed zeal for the glory of Christ. Awake hearts want Christ to loom large over the world. And when our hearts are awake and alive, we have a renewed compassion for the lost. When you're spiritually awake, you never ever have more compassion for the lost than them. And So, when God revives His church, we have renewed zeal for Christ looming large, we have a renewed compassion for the lost, and there we go.

And no one can even restrain a church like that. Isn't that the church you want to be a part of? A church that no one can even restrain. Most churches that I've been part of, most churches that I've led, I'm an equal member of the problem, an equal part of the problem. Most churches, you can't even push us outside the walls of the church to speak of Christ.

I'm talking about an awake church where you can't restrain them, you can't keep them in the building, because it's burning in their heart to see Christ loom large over the world and their compassion for the lost is bursting. We want that. And that is the relationship that we normally think of. And it's right. In other words, it happens in that order.

God revives His people so they think more of the glory of Christ and they have greater compassion and so you can't restrain them and they go out and they have an impact on the world. We normally think of it in that sequence and it's right. I think if you study revivals you see that frequently. But what I'm arguing this morning is that there's actually a bi-directional interrelationship. Meaning that while that's true and it often flows in that direction, God revives His church and then they have an impact on the world, that it is actually true that it also can and does flow in the opposite direction.

Meaning his people not feeling particularly spiritually awake by faith obey him and engage in the great commission and they find God true to his word and he sends his spirit coursing through their veins. A bi-directional interrelationship going in both directions. Both of these things happen from time to time. What I mean is that doing the work God has given us actually serves to awaken us. So it's wrong to wait around, hoping God will awaken us so that we can have an impact on the world.

No, we obey by faith. We don't walk by sight, we walk by faith. We don't go to the nations because we feel particularly awake today. We go to the nations because this is the will of our King who has saved us. And He's promised that He'll give us the power when we go and so we just start taking steps in the direction that He has pointed us, taking Him at His Word that He will send the power of His Spirit to work in and through us.

So that is proposition number one. Awakening in the church is closely interrelated with awakening in the world. Proposition number two. It is presumptuous. Translation, sinful.

To seek the Acts 1 promise in isolation from the Matthew 28 commission. It is presumptuous. It is a sinful thing to seek after the Acts 1 promise that God would fill us with His Spirit, to seek that in isolation from the Matthew 28 commission and the work that God has commanded us to be about. Are you comfortable with the following statement? Lord, we want to know the power of your Spirit working in and through us, but we don't really care about your commission.

God, send your Spirit to make us alive, but we don't care about the work. Hopefully that makes you squirm to hear that. Yes, to feeling the power of your spirit, no thanks to the work. That should make us squirm. That doesn't seem right, does it?

Let me ask, when we in the church say, we want to be awakened, we're seeking awakening, what do we mean by that? Do we mean, oh Lord, conform us to the precious and beautiful image of your Son? Do we mean, O Lord, let us grow in the knowledge and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do we mean, oh Lord, make us useful in the world to be powerful preachers of the good news that Jesus has come and died for sinners, and He's seated at the right hand of His Father in glory. Or do we simply want to feel more spiritually alive?

Do we simply want to feel more spiritually alive? Do we simply want to feel more close to Christ? I feel distant from Christ, and I want to feel near to Him again. Do we simply want to feel more tingles during our worship times? What are you after?

And are you at the center of it? What are you after? And are you at the center of it? What are you after? And are you at the center of it?

Now don't get me wrong. I want to feel more spiritually alive. I don't think I should apologize for that. I want to feel nearer to Christ. I don't think I should apologize for that.

I want to feel nearer to Christ. I don't think I should apologize for that. I want to feel more tingles in worship. I don't think I should apologize for that. I think that emotionless worship, emotionless Christianity is blasphemy.

Cold, mechanical, sterile worship in Christianity, God save us from it. But if it ends at the emotion, that's blasphemy too. If that's the goal for us, just to feel it with no concern for the glory of Christ our Savior in the world, God save us from that. So this proposition, it is presumptuous to seek the Act 1 promise in isolation from the Matthew 28 Commission is the negative way to say it. We shouldn't do that.

You shouldn't seek the filling of the Holy Spirit apart from a desire to engage in the work that God has given us to do. Don't do that. It's wrong to do that. But there's a positive way to state the same proposition. We should seek the Acts 1 promise in connection with the Matthew 28 commission.

We should go to God seeking after the filling of the Spirit for the doing of the work that He has given us to do. What if we were to pray like this, O God, Fill us with your Holy Spirit. Make us a holy people because of the work of your Holy Spirit. That we might be a people Filled with the joy of your spirit and made ready to be what we ought to be in the world, to do what you have given us to do in the world. Oh, send your spirit upon us, God, in power.

Do we think that God would be hesitant to answer that prayer? You think if we really from the heart prayed that way, God would be in heaven saying, I don't know. Luke 11 verse 13. Jesus says, If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. You evil dads, so predisposed, Even with all the corruptions of your heart, you're so predisposed to give good gifts to your children.

How much more will God who has none of those corruptions never participate in any of that evil that is in your heart, how much more is he predisposed to lavish good on his children? Jesus takes that argument and says, ask your father for the Holy Spirit. He'll give you an avalanche. How much more? Now it's in that verse, not as a question, but for the sake of comparison.

You're evil, you're predisposed to give good to your children. How much more, God who has none of that corruption, how much more predisposed is He to give even more of those who ask Him for the Holy Spirit, but there's nothing that keeps us from making it a question and asking it. How much more? A little more? If we as fathers have such a predisposition to do good to our children.

Every chance that we get, it's a delight to us. How much more, a little more, is God in heaven? Will He give a little more than us of the Holy Spirit to those who ask? No, He'll give an avalanche of the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him for it. When I prepared this sermon in late October or early November, I was just struck by the verse.

I hadn't seen it in a while and I'm thinking, Why don't I ask specifically for the Holy Spirit in my prayers more? And you know what? As I was preparing to preach it again, I thought the same thing again. Why don't we ask? We have a promise keeping God.

He has kept every promise He has ever made. And He says, ask me for the Holy Spirit and I will give it to you. And we forget to ask. That was proposition number two. It is presumptuous to seek the Acts 1 promise in isolation from the Matthew 28 commission.

Or the positive side of that. We should seek the Acts 1 promise to be filled with the Holy Spirit in connection with the Matthew 28 work that he's giving us to do. Proposition number three. Even modest engagement with our commission has awakening effects. I mean I think we should engage in the Great Commission with all of our hearts, but I'm telling you I haven't always, and you could say the same.

And this is really just a testimony from my own personal experience that God is so good that even a modest engagement with the Great Commission has awakening effects in our hearts. And I know it because I have experienced it. And I want to give you a list of ways in which Even a modest amount of obeying the Lord's command to speak of Christ to the unbelieving world has these awakening effects in our souls. Let me give you a few examples. Engagement with our commission drives us to pray.

And that's awakening. Engagement with our commission drives us to pray. Well, how so? When you speak to the lost about Christ, how often have you had this experience? You are 15, 20, 30 minutes into sharing Christ with them, and it's so apparent, I'm talking to a dead man.

He's dead. I could have the most gracious presentation of the Gospel in the history of the world. I have the most timely and helpful answers to the questions and objections that they're raising. And it won't matter because they're dead. In that moment, you know, if God doesn't show up, it doesn't matter what you do or say.

It makes you pray. It makes you throw yourself on the mercies of God. Oh, please, God, please have mercy on this dead man who is before me who won't give an inch to the words that would bring in peace with you. Engagement with our Commission drives us to pray and this awakens us. That sense of total helplessness and dependence helps us to shake off our spiritual sleepiness.

Engagement with our Commission causes us to feel the Holy Spirit working in and through us. Have you ever had that experience where you push through the fear of man and you bite the bullet And you do it. You open your mouth and you begin to speak of the mercies of Christ for sinners. And even though you know you are not very good at this sort of thing, and you know that it is terrifying, and you know that you are so prone to say the wrong thing. You feel God helping you.

He's helping me. This is awakening to our souls to go beyond, way beyond the edge of our comfort zone, to jump off the edge, and to find, He's helping me. This is awakening. Engagement with our commission lets us hear the Gospel from our own mouths. This is so awakening.

I've had this experience many times, speaking to someone who doesn't know Christ. They're lost. They're in their sins. And the Gospel is coming out of my mouth and I guess they're hearing it, but I know I'm hearing it. And it makes me think, I really believe every word of this.

This is not just a game to me. I'm not just playing a role in a play here. I believe this. God has made these things a reality in my life. God has made them a reality.

We're not role playing. These are the most precious truths. What a privilege to speak them so that I can hear them again. This is awakening for our souls. Engagement with our commission makes us remember what we were.

You You're sharing the gospel with someone, and they are today what you were yesterday, or last week, or last year, or a decade ago. And to see the bondage of sin in their lives just brings you back to the days when you were just like that. It makes you remember what you were, but you are not that anymore because the grace of God has washed over you and done a saving work in your life. That is awakening to your soul. Engagement with our commission keeps us from the sin of not engaging with our commission.

And sin is deadening. This is a really important point. Engaging in our commission holds us back from the great sin of not engaging in our commission. And sin deadens our heart. What is it that we need to be awakened from anyway?

It's the deadening effects of sin in our lives. Sin deadens us. It makes us cold. It makes us spiritually sleepy. We need to obey the Lord.

And this is an area of obedience. This has an awakening effect. Obedience always has an awakening effect. Engagement with our commission connects us in a real way to the war. I have a sense of this every time we go out to the clinic.

See, we're in the United States of America, but if you forgot what it's like to be in a war zone, go out to the clinic. The language is salty, and the hand gestures are unfriendly, and the pushback against the presentation of the Gospel is borderline violence sometimes. It would be a fearful thing to be out there at times. Do you think we should hold ourselves back because of that? No!

There is a war on. There are two kingdoms and we have an enemy that seeks to devour us. And the more often we are brought face to face with that reality and we get outside of this fake bubble where there is no danger, the better. It's awakening for our souls. Proposition number three, even modest engagement with our commission has awakening effects.

Proposition number four. None of this means that we can contrive a revival by our own efforts. None of what I'm saying should be understood to say that if we just do the right things in the right way at the right time, we guarantee an outcome. No, I'm not saying that. None of this means that we can contrive a revival by our own efforts as if we are following the recipe.

And if we just put in the right ingredients in the right measure and we stir and we bake at the right temperature, we are guaranteed the results. No, the outcomes are not guaranteed. Sometimes God is pleased to pour out His Spirit for an unusual end gathering of the lost. I love reading the stories of that. I pray that we see that with our own eyes here where God has put us.

Sometimes He tarries and it just feels like we're plodding along, not getting any fruit from it. We are not revivalists. Yes, We believe in revivals. We know that God pours out His Spirit in unusual ways for a great ingathering of souls into His Kingdom at times. But we're not revivalists who think that it's all methods.

If we just do the methods right, we guarantee the outcome. All of that is His business. Our job is to obey by faith. We are simply His witnesses, His ambassadors sent with his message. So success for us is faithfulness.

Success for us is obedience. If we do the work that God has given us to do, whether there are many saved or few saved, we have succeeded. Now that is not an excuse for going about our work sloppily and half-heartedly. In other words, you can play that card, oh no one's being saved, and the truth is we've been really half-hearted about it, and we've been sloppy about our business. We've been workmen that should be ashamed of our work, but play that, oh, God's sovereign.

Oh no. Oh no we don't. He is sovereign. That part's true. That's not an excuse to engage half-heartedly in the work that God has commanded us to do.

We'd be sloppy about that work. That's Proposition number four. None of this means that we can contrive a revival by our own efforts. Proposition number five, The last one. All of this means that God loves and rewards our obedience.

Think of Acts 1 in those terms as a reward for our obedience. God has said, Go do this work. Take the Gospel to every nook and cranny, every corner of this earth, and I'll meet you there. Think of that as a promise of reward for obedience. That you get to experience the Holy Spirit coursing through your veins in power as a reward for obeying Him.

I'll take it. Proposition number four, none of this means that we can contrive a revival by our own efforts but proposition number five is all of this means that God loves and rewards our obedience. We engage in our commission by faith. What does that mean? Simply because He said so.

And we trust him and believe him and we love him because he loved us first and we're thankful to him So we want to do whatever is pleasing in a sight He said this is pleasing in my sight that my people would take the gospel to the nations Having received the grace of God our hearts ought to burn with thankfulness. Think about that for a minute. You've received the grace of God. He didn't owe it to you. In fact, He's passed over nations for centuries.

God has passed over nations for centuries. But He's been gracious to you. This truth should make your heart burn with gratitude. And with a desire for Jesus to be known as Savior, as a transforming Savior. So the Great Commission must not be grudging for us.

The Great Commission must never be grudging for us. We know He told us to do it. Fine, we'll do it. We grit our teeth and start to do it as if God has never done anything for us. The Great Commission should be an outlet to express our joy and gratitude of being objects of His grace.

So let's purpose in our hearts together forever to think as much as God would give us grace to do it, to think of the Great Commission as an outlet for our joy and thankfulness that God would have mercy on someone like me. He's given you an outlet for all the joy that you experience in Him. Oh friends, do you not remember when you were perishing in your sins? I have a scandal-free past. I have a scandal free past.

No one on earth can tell you scandalous stories about me. But I know all the things about me that you don't know about me. And no one else knows about me. And I remember what it was like to be perishing in my sins so respectable. My heart was filthy.

Behind the shield. Still is, sometimes. Then we should obey. If we remember what it was like to perish, be perishing in our sins, we should obey. We should love.

We should obey. And God will love it when we obey from the heart because He knows what it means. He knows it's an expression of our love. That's why obedience matters. Because God knows how to interpret real obedience, heartfelt obedience.

I'm not talking about the external baloney that we can all do that doesn't count. I'm talking about heartfelt true obedience. God knows how to translate and interpret that. It's an expression of love for Him, and He knows it, and He loves it when we love Him. And He rewards it.

May it be so among us. May we remember however many days it was when we were perishing in our sins that God would reach into that and pour out His grace on us. And it would make us careful to obey so that he would know that we love him for it. A few practical steps you can take starting today. I'll give you three.

Number one, commit to something in your schedule that routinely engages you in the Great Commission. Put something on your calendar that routinely engages you in the Great Commission. Now the danger in saying this is that we begin to say routinely schedule things equals the Great Commission. No? Often the most significant great commission things that happen are spontaneous and opportunities that God thrusts upon us and not anything we put on the calendar at all.

So, Don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that's the Great Commission. I am saying that for a lot of us, we need the wheels to be in motion. And so, to be ready for when God thrusts the spontaneous opportunity upon us, we need something in our schedule that has us with forward motion. And that especially For those who don't have the gift of evangelism, where it's just pouring out of our pores, we can't help it, that having things that are periodically scheduled, that give us, put us face to face with an opportunity like the nursing home or the clinic, but there are many other things, just something like that, that forces the issue in our lives, where we would be a lot more comfortable in our disobedience, if we didn't have a disciplined approach to it.

This is what I'm calling for. For the most of us who don't have the gift of evangelism to be moving forward in a disciplined way. So that we're ready for all the other great commission opportunities that will just happen in our lives because God is working in the world. Number two, target a few unbelievers and then begin to routinely pray for their salvation. Write them down.

Who are you praying for? God save them. Does that mean they are the only people who are going to share the gospel with? Of course not. But target some people.

It will make you more tender hearted towards them. It will make the conversations with them become more intentional faster because you've been praying. Put a target on their back and go after them. Lay claim to them as much as you can for the kingdom. God, save them, save them.

Give me opportunities. Forgive me for my disobedience for the miss opportunities in the past. God, give me another chance with them. Soften their heart. Convict them of their sins.

Make them needy. Number three. Ask the Lord for more of the Holy Spirit. Seek the Acts 1 promise in connection with the Matthew 28 commission. Right back to Luke 11 verse 13, how much more will He give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?

Make it a practice to ask the Lord, more, more, more, I want more. I want more. You promised to give me more. Please give me more. Final charge, seek awakening by every means possible.

I talked about the awakening pie. This is just one slice of it. Engaging in the Great Commission because we know that God has promised to send power to meet us there. If we're not talking about the Holy Spirit being upon us in power when we're talking about awakening, what are we talking about? I think they're the same thing.

Don't forget this slice of the pie. But don't forget the rest of the pie either. What's the rest of the pie? It's the ordinary means of grace plus some other things, I'm sure. I have time to develop that.

But praying, but reading the Bible, not just to check off the day's reading. I've got a reading plan. I'm doing that. But are we before the Lord as we read His Word, wanting to hear and speak to us? I hope so.

Being here, hearing, preaching, engaging in a devoted and undivided way in the Lord's Supper. That's a way which we seek awakening. Father, The churches who don't feel the need for awakening are probably the most asleep of all. I pray that You would awaken us to the need for awakening. Show us how spiritually sleepy we often are so that we would seek You to wake us up.

God, I pray that You would propel us forward into great commission work here where You have planted us in the region around us, to every nook and cranny and corner of this earth like we never have been before, and then that we might see your promise fulfilled, that your Holy Spirit would course through our veins in power. You would meet us there. We would see wonders as we obey you by faith. Please do this work among us we pray in Jesus name. Amen.