Isn’t it crazy to think that Jesus meant for the Great Commission of making disciples to even continue through COVID!? Have you noticed that when things shake over prolong periods of time, that it is so ease to create new patterns of inward living? Before we know it our focus can soon shrink to:  me, my family & my world only. And while self-care and surely family investment is crucial, the risk is instead of clinging to Jesus during the shaking who is the True Vine, and choosing to be His branches that thrive and bear much fruit to strengthen others (see John 15:1-5), we can default to a diminished version of bunkering in, walling others out, and thus most assuredly putting a bowel over our lamp (Matthew 5:15,16).

And yet I don’t see an asterisk ( * ) at the conclusion of Matthew 28 in the Great Commission before Jesus ascended as if saying, “ *Making disciples is the plan guys, that is unless your world gets to shaken.” In fact, during this last year and a half, nearly every person on the planet has found their world shaken, it surely hasn’t just been believers at Campus Bible. And one of God’s sovereign joys is to move profoundly in and during our weakness.
 
So church family, today I feel compelled to remind you of Christ’s final words before He ascended regarding His marching orders to make disciples:

Matthew 28:18-20
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

You don’t need to have a Bible degree, be a clergy or wait to “feel anointed” to care for someone else and show them what God’s shown you. If Jesus is your Lord, you are already filled profoundly with the Holy Spirit of God and infused with power and wisdom beyond your comprehension!

So I charge you today friends: pray for God to send you someone to mentor or invest in. And/or think and ask God who He’s already put in your life, that you can guide a few steps closer to Jesus through His word and prayer. And if the first two don’t somehow apply, simply start each day this month praying that God would lead that next individual to you. It is already the will of the Father for His Son’s sacrifice to fill up Heaven’s mansions, and there are still much to many down here who do not have an entrance ticket or are feeble and need to be strengthen in the Lord.

So if you agree with me that Jesus did not intend an asterisk * in the great commission…let’s invest in God’s economy today…people!