The Sending Heart of God

Grace Community Church

Matt Slack

November 10th, 2024

THE SENDING HEART OF GOD

Matthew 28:18-20 (Gen. 12:1-2, Exodus 3:14, Isaiah 6:1-8, John 20:21)

Good morning. You can open up your Bible to Matthew 28. I’ve titled this message: The Sending Heart

of God. And my hope for us today is that as we see God's heart for the lost, His heart would become our

heart. That He would remind us who we are as disciples of Christ. And that He would empower us by

His Spirit with faith, purpose and courage to live sent lives so that many would come to worship Jesus.

So let’s start by looking at our mission which comes from the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20

(read) “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them inthe name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with

you always, to the end of the age.”

We believe the gospel changes everything. That when we respond to the gospel we become a new

creation with a new identity. He gives us new desires, affections, and priorities. We become citizens of a

new kingdom and members of a new family. And, in the same way that He came after us and called us

out of our darkness, He sends us right back to call others into His light.

If you’re a Christian, you’re a missionary from the moment you believed, you were not only brought in,

you’ve been sent out. This is as true about you, as a Christian, as the fact that you have been forgiven or

that you belong to the church.

Now, for a lot of us, this might be a radical paradigm shift if you’re coming from a church culture that

sees evangelism as a task to be done rather than seeing it as who we are.

Let me try to illustrate the difference. If you have a yard you have to mow the grass. But mowing isn’t

your identity, it’s just something you have to do. If you dislike it enough, you can pay someone to do it

for you. It doesn’t change a thing about who you are.

In contrast, being a husband and a father is different. This becomes who I am. When I get married, who I

am changes. When we have a child, it changes again. You don’t stop and start being a husband and

father-like, “sorry honey, I’m being a father right now, I’ll be a husband again tomorrow.”

Unlike mowing the lawn, I AM a husband and father; good or bad. If you’re a Christian, you have been

sent. In other words you’re a missionary of Christ, a representative, a billboard, a witness/living

testimony to your world of who Jesus is and what He’s done for you. We might be living that way or we

might not, but that’s who you are if you claim to follow Christ.

What if we saw ourselves this way? That instead of evangelism being a task we have to do, we saw it as

the way we live. What if we saw our mission as being connected to who we are, and how we see the

world and other people? I think that paradigm shift would radically alter the trajectory of the church as

we begin thinking more biblically about what it is to be the church, that we’re always being sent.

Not just being a part of a church, coming to a meeting on Sunday, or even inviting others. But that our

lives exude the love of Christ-not just that we share the love of Christ with others, but that the love of

1Grace Community Church

Matt Slack

November 10th, 2024

THE SENDING HEART OF GOD

Matthew 28:18-20 (Gen. 12:1-2, Exodus 3:14, Isaiah 6:1-8, John 20:21)

Christ becomes our love for them.That’s what we see in the bible. This is how the early church lived,

how the gospel spread and the church expanded from city to city, to surrounding countries, and to us.

As the gospel broke into the hearts of men and women, their lives became a living testimony of who

Jesus is and what He’s done, like salt and light; and others began to see and taste the Good News and

grace of Jesus.

But being “sent” didn't start in the book of Acts. This is something that originated in the very heart of

God. God has been sending His people to do His work on earth from the beginning. See, before man

sinned, God didn’t need a messenger. He could be with us, talk to us. But our sin, rebellion against Him

separated us. Because God’s holy we could no longer be in His presence. But God didn’t give up on us.

Because of His promise, His will and His love, He still comes after the sinner.

Listen to what Brad Brisco says in his book, Missional Essentials, “Between God’s sending of Abram in

Genesis 12, to the sending of His angel ‘to show what must soon take place’ in Revelation 22, there are

literally hundreds of examples of God as a sending God.”

This is the story of the bible. God’s plan, God’s heart to go after the lost and the broken. To restore sight

to the blind and heal the leper. To give hope to the hopeless and set the captives free. Now, we don’t

have time to look at all the examples of this in scripture but let's look at a few. Let’s start with Abram.

In Genesis 12. Abram (Abraham) is a pagan, literally. His culture worshiped the sun, moon, stars, they

were idol worshippers, and practiced infant sacrifice. And God chose him, told him to GO and make a

promise that would affect all mankind. Read Gen. 12:1-2. “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from

your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make

of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”

God chose Him and sent Him. And he went even though he didn’t know where He was going, how he

would get there or what the promise was all about. And He went, and he had a son named Isaac. And

Isaac had a son named Jacob.

Jacob had 12 sons who would become the 12 tribes of Israel-the people of God. And God sent one of

those sons to Egypt (through sin and suffering) to save the world from famine. Joseph stayed in Egypt

and his father and brothers and family moved there with him. And the people of God grew over the next

four hundred years into the millions. But as time passed and Pharaohs changed, the people of God found

themselves enslaved in Egypt. They were oppressed and mistreated and crying out to be delivered.

So God chose another man-Moses. Moses grew up an Egyptian as Pharaoh’s adopted son. But he was

also a Jew. He was out in the wilderness and He saw a bush on fire but it wasn't being burned. When He

took a closer look, God called out to Him, and he said “Here I am.’ And the Lord said, “I’ve seen the

affliction and suffering of my people, I’ve heard their cry and I’ve come down to deliver them. And I’m

going to use you to do it, Moses.”

2Grace Community Church

Matt Slack

November 10th, 2024

THE SENDING HEART OF GOD

Matthew 28:18-20 (Gen. 12:1-2, Exodus 3:14, Isaiah 6:1-8, John 20:21)

Look at Ex. 3:10 (read). “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children

of Israel, out of Egypt.” You might be able to relate to Moses' response to God. He’s like, whoa, whoa,

whoa. Who am I? I can’t do that? God tells him the same thing Jesus tells us in Matt 28, “But I’ll be

with you”, which should be enough, right?

Then Moses asks, “Who should I tell them has sent me?” Look at verse 14 (read). “God said to Moses,

“I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: r‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

And Moses went and He delivered the nation of Israel.

Because of sin, it wasn’t a straight line, but God was faithful to His people and used Moses to do it.

Over the next 700 years, God continued to be faithful and the people of God continued to be unfaithful.

During that time Israel rebelled against God and was divided into 2 kingdoms and later, the northern

kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians and the southern kingdom was on the same track.

And again, we see the sending heart of God. Turn to This is perhaps the most dramatic illustration of sending in the Old Testament. God came to Isaiah in a

vision, and he saw God seated on His throne. He saw His majesty, he experienced His holiness, and he

knew he was unclean. But God touched his lips with a burning coal and took his guilt away. And then

Isaiah 6.

look what happens in verse 8 (read). “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and

who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

God sent Isaiah to His people. And later in the book of Isaiah, is that the message God sent Isaiah to

share, was the message of Good News, the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham to bless all

nations. The promise God made to Moses-to deliver His people from captivity.

He sent Isaiah with the message that God would be sending another man; the long-awaited redeemer, a

Savior, who would rescue His people from the bonds of sin.

Look at Isaiah 61:1 (read). “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has tanointed

me to bring good news to the poor;he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to

the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;”

All that and more would happen through one man, which is the ultimate example of the sending heart of

God, and what all these others were pointing and leading to. Because this man that He would send is His

own Son. He came 700 years later, but He didn’t simply come with a message. He came as a servant to

give His life away as a ransom for the sinner. God Himself set aside His deity and came to dwell with us

as a man, to suffer for us as a substitute, to die for us sinners, so that through Him and His resurrection,

we could live with Him forever. He came to rescue us, so that He could be with us and us with Him!

In this, the greatest story of sending ever, we clearly see the sending heart of God. That He is both the

sender and the sent. That it’s HIS great love for us that compelled Him, the Creator and Ruler of the

universe, to come after us Himself, knowing that the path to our rescue would take Him to the cross.

3Grace Community Church

Matt Slack

November 10th, 2024

THE SENDING HEART OF GOD

Matthew 28:18-20 (Gen. 12:1-2, Exodus 3:14, Isaiah 6:1-8, John 20:21)

This is the gospel. That’s the story that broke into your life. And that’s the story you have to tell. Hope,

forgiveness, restoration! This is the gospel that changed the trajectory of our lives. And when we follow

Jesus, His heart becomes ours.

Pastor Jeff Vanderstelt, “I think one of the most powerful apologetics of the gospel is when a group of

people love one another and live in unity together in the midst of a broken, dark, depraved world. And

they don’t think that they have to remove themselves from the world to be sanctified because they believe

the gospel is powerful enough to sanctify them in the middle of a broken world.”

That’s the radical nature of the gospel, if in fact we’re experiencing the radical nature of the gospel, it

will not allow us to ignore the brokenness and hurt, the darkness and despair, the calloused all around us.

The radical nature of this good news that set us free when we didn’t know what we were doing brings

with it the very heart of God for those who are just like us.

What if the purpose of the gospel isn’t to get us into church, what if that’s just the fruit (a desire to

fellowship)? What if we didn’t see the objective of evangelism being to get people into the church (but

to love them the way Jesus loved us)? What if we simply shared our story with Jesus as we love others

and trusted Him to draw them? What if we died to ourselves and loved the people around us in a way

that resembles the love, care, and sacrifice of Jesus?

I want to challenge us this morning. Will we say with Isaiah, “Here I am, send me.”? Will we respond

like Moses, who knew his limitations but trusted God for the impossible? Will our faith take us on the

same path as Abraham, who didn’t know where he was going or how to get there but trusted God and

went?

Now, if you’re struggling with any of this this morning, there is encouragement for you. There's another

example you can look to. Remember Jesus who came when you had no hope. Remember Jesus who was

strong when you were weak and did everything for you that you couldn’t do. Remember Jesus who was

sent by the Father to die on a cross for you, so that you could be forgiven and restored.

Maybe you even need to be restored right now. Cry out to Him. Bow before Him. Confess your heart to

Him, repent, and be restored. And when restored, remember the sending heart of God that came in your

need, and let that compel you to go.

Let’s worship Him and let's pray that He would give us His heart to go to the broken with the healing

power of Jesus.

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