The Way of Mission

Introduction

We jump to the end of the story of Matthew. What we see is the crowds. The crowds are chanting, crucify him, crucify him. And then there’s this interesting part of the story where Pilate offers to release one of the prisoners. And we’re told that the crowds chose Barabbas. He’s a notorious or an infamous, a prisoner. He is an insurrectionist, a murderer. And what’s interesting about all of this is the crowds don’t choose Barabbas because he’s a good guy. Or because they like him so much. They choose him because they hate the truth. They hate the truth so much that they chose to free a man who was a murderer and who created problems in their culture. This is the power of hatred.

As he’s gone out last time, we saw in chapter 8 and 9, he healed three groups of people, and he calmed a storm. And we’re told in this text in the early part that he gave authority to his disciples to do the same kinds of things that he was doing. Which is pretty interesting. He calls them to himself, and then he gives them authority, it says in chapter 10 and verse 1. He’s not calling the disciples here. They’re already following him. So this is not like some of the other accounts where he’s, you know, finding them and saying, Hey, come follow me. This is just him gathering them together and saying, Hey, I’m about to send you out. I’ve got a mission for you. And you’re going to do the same kinds of things that I was doing.

We just saw that in chapters eight and nine. Now they’re going to go out and do these things. He says, You go out and proclaim the kingdom of heaven is at hand, it says in verse 7. And notice then what they’re supposed to do. Verse 8 heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. These are all the kinds of things that Jesus was doing in chapters eight and nine. So it makes sense that his followers, his disciples, are now then going to go out and operate just like he did. But I want to pick up in verse 16. So before that, he’s kind of prepping his disciples, giving them so good information about their need to speak truth, their need to trust God.

Don’t take a bunch of stuff with you. You’re going to rely on God to provide for you, and as you go house to house, those people will take care of you. And then you keep moving, right? If people aren’t receptive, you just keep going. But then he says, This beginning in verse 16 Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues. And you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.

For it is not you who speak, this but the spirit of your father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. For truly I say to you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebubul, how much more will they malign those of his household?

So have no fear of them. For nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the house tops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my father who is in heaven.

But whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my father who is in heaven. Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. And the one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. And the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water, because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. The disciples certainly have witnessed the powerful message of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. And then they begin traveling around with him and seeing him work all these miracles and teach people in synagogues and villages, but now is the time for him to send them out into the fields.

So I don’t want to lose sight of that, but at the same time, I also want to take the principles of what Jesus is telling them, and then help them use we can use these principles for our own life, and the things that we should be doing as followers of Jesus. And so certainly within this, there are things happening here that I don’t necessarily expect to happen to me or to you. Because Jesus and his disciples have a special relationship and he gives them a special kind of authority. And so all of that is true and real in this text. But behind all of that are some principles, or some ideas of what it looks like to be on a mission, to be working to fulfill the will of the Lord, or even the idea is mainly what I want to speak about this morning is the concept of speaking truth, what that looks like in the world.

1. Speaking Truth Comes at a Cost

And so the idea if we’re gonna follow Jesus, if we’re gonna follow his path and walk in his way, if we’re gonna be people who are on a mission who have a purpose, just as Jesus had a purpose and a mission, the reality is that’s going to come at a cost in life. There are going to be sacrifices that have to be made when that is a reality of how I live. And Jesus doesn’t try to hide that from his disciples.

He doesn’t try to tell them some story about how wonderful it’s going to be, and there won’t be any problems along the way. That’s not what Jesus does. He is up front and he is honest about the reality of what happens when you speak truth into the world.

Beware of men.

So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. A lot of animal imagery there. It’s kind of interesting. Four different animals mentioned in this text. Essentially, Jesus is just trying to tell them to be smart about what they’re doing, be wise, but also to be crafty, to be innocent, but at the same time, don’t be naive, right? Like there’s different sides of this. As you are operating with people, you’ve got to take in all elements of what it means to be human as you’re interacting with other humans. And he’s recognizing as sheep who are helpless. He’s sending them out among people who want to devour them. People who are evil, people who are hateful. And of course, in the midst of that, there are people who will also listen, right?

That’s the point. He’s going out and he’s teaching people and he’s getting mixed reactions. The disciples are going to experience the same thing. They’re going from place to place and village to village, synagogue to synagogue, teaching. Some will be responsive, but some are wolves. Some are ready to devour. And he’s warning them be careful. You need to be wise about your interactions with people. And while they will be hateful and evil, while they will seek to devour and they have no moral limits, even in the midst of all of that, you are still to remain innocent. As they’re not interested in being innocent, they will slander and lie, they will mistreat, persecute, abuse, all the things he’s about to talk about here in just a minute.

That is the way you’re to react. Be wise, but also be innocent. Be innocent as doves. It would be nice to think that people would respond fairly to truth. It’s a great thought. We’re going to talk about a few amazing and wonderful thoughts that aren’t realities this morning. That’s one of them. The idea that we can just present truth to people and they would just be open to it and accept it. But the reality is that’s just not how it works. And there are plenty of people who are uninterested in the truth, and the disciples were going to face plenty of people like that, which is why Jesus is warning them about this. And in their case specifically, he has a direct purpose. He wants them to keep moving.

This is not always the case in every situation, so let me just point that out. But in their situation, he wants them to go from town to town, and if someone’s not willing to listen, you shake the dust off your feet and you move on to the next place. There’s times that’s probably appropriate for us too, depending on the situation. But here he has something he’s wanting them to accomplish in a relatively short amount of time, and he doesn’t have time for them to kind of belabor the point and try to work with those who just aren’t interested in listening. They have some work to do and they need to get through a wide range of places and areas. And sometimes maybe that’s the situation with us as well.

But the reality is there’s going to be people who would reject them. And what he says is when they reject you just move on to the next place. But beware of people, they will treat you unfairly. They will persecute and oppress you, verse 17 and 18. They’ll deliver you over to courts, they’ll flog you in the synagogues, they’ll drag you before governors. All for my sake. Now started with the Barabbas story for a reason. Because I want us to, I know you know this, but I just want to point this out as kind of a foundation for what we’re working through here. Jesus was the most innocent person to ever live. He was righteous. He never did anything to harm anyone. His motives were completely pure.

The things he was telling people were for their own benefit to try to get them to change to be right and in an alignment with God. Even when he’s flipping tables in the temple, he’s doing this to try to convince people they need to come back to God and do the right thing. I’m not like that. You’re not like that. So I make no qualms about that. We are not perfect like Jesus. But at the same time, just recognize that this perfect man who everything he did was to help other people, in the end, they hate truth so much they kill him. Don’t be naive about the way people act. Beware of men, Jesus says. Just because you’re speaking truth doesn’t mean people will accept you.

They’re gonna persecute you, they’re going to oppress you, they will hate you. Interesting, the phrase theology here in verse 22. He says, you will be hated by all, and all at a lot of times, I almost said all the time, it would have worked. But all doesn’t frequently mean actually all. He’s speaking about a kind of a wide range of people. All is kind of a strange word. There’s certainly going to be people who are receptive, but there’s gonna be a lot of people who hate them. And it’s because of Jesus’ name. Interesting. For my name’s sake, the fact that they’re going around and they’re preaching Jesus. This is why they hate the disciples. It’s not really so much about them. And maybe that’s good for us to keep in mind as well.

He God tells Samuel the same thing. They’re not rejecting you, Samuel. They’re rejecting me when they want a king in Israel and that they’re going out and they want to do their own thing, and Samuel’s getting kind of upset about this. And God says, It’s not about you, Samuel. And when I’m rejected or when you’re rejected, when we are oppressed or we are mocked, or people make fun of us, it’s not really about us. It’s the reality that we’re speaking something in Jesus’ name. We’re speaking truth, things that people don’t want to hear.

And people sometimes hate the truth so much that you will even kill an innocent person in the process to get rid of it. This is what we’re seeing here. And this is what he’s warning them about in this text. Some of this will become a reality for them in their lives, not during this limited commission, but once Jesus leaves and they go out into the world, most of these disciples become martyrs for the truth. People hate the truth so much they kill almost all of them in the process. They will falsely accuse. The end of this section. He’s talking about the idea of discipleship. A disciple is not above his teacher, verse 24, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant to be like his master.

If they call the master of the house Beelzebubul, if they’re proclaiming that Jesus is the master of demons, that he’s controlling the unseen realm of evilness and darkness and wickedness, how much more will they malign you? They’re not afraid to kill an innocent man, Jesus Christ Himself. They’re not afraid to call him the king of demons. So what do you think they’re going to do with me and you? Whether they’re going to do with the disciples, do with people who are speaking truth. They’re not afraid to speak falsely, to falsely accuse you as you’re trying to work in the mission field of God’s kingdom. And so all of this is to kind of speak self-righteously or anything like that. The whole point is here just to have right expectations.

To realize the reality of how this works. Jesus is not telling his disciples, you know, y’all are just so great and awesome, people are going to dislike you. It’s not the point. It’s just the reality of how this works. It’s how it worked for Jesus. He’s aware of this. He knows it’s how it’s going to be for his disciples. And the reality is it’s the same way today. If you’re willing to speak truth into a world that doesn’t want to hear it’s going to come at a cost. And what that cost is going to vary greatly. It may cost you relationships. That’s a lot of what he talks about here in this text. Maybe it’ll cost you a job. There’s an employer who doesn’t like to hear the things that you say or the kind of life you live.

When we are speaking truth and we’re unwilling to not do that. And so the point here is a lot like Peter, this is no surprise. Don’t be surprised that this is what happens. Now it’s interesting. I’ve been reading on the Enlightenment recently. And it’s just some of this is hard for us to understand, I mean, myself included, because the reality is we just have it so good. We have so much peace. I’ll have some things to say about peace later. We have so much peace in our world that the slightest oppression or persecution seems like this monumental thing. But it’s interesting, and during the Enlightenment period, there’s all sorts of craziness going on. You know, even among people who profess to believe in God or Jesus, you know, they’re violent and ugly to each other from different doctrinal positions.

I mean, when I say violent, I don’t mean like they’re calling each other heretics. I mean they’re burning people at the stake, they’re hanging people, they’re executing people who disagree with them. So relatively, we have things pretty good. But the reality is we don’t care so much about that because we’re living in the world we’re living in, and when things don’t go well and people make fun of us or they mock us or they oppress us in some way because we are speaking the truth about Jesus, we still feel that and we experience it. But what Jesus tells his own disciples is this is just part of discipleship. That’s how it works. This is the reality of life for those who want to follow him and who want to speak truth.

2. Fearing the Right Thing

And so the next step in the way of mission is to make sure I am fearing the right thing. That I have placed my fear in the right place. There’s all sorts of things around us that draw our attention or that concern us or worry us. And some of these ideas come from actually the Sermon on the Mount, some of the earlier concepts. Do not be anxious about your life, he says. Don’t be worried about all the things around you. And he’s talking more about material things there. But there’s some other elements of that, even in the Sermon on the Mount that deal with oppression and persecution. Don’t be so worried about that. Worry about the things that matter most, he’s telling them in that first initial sermon about his kingdom.

But if we’re going to walk in the way of mission, it requires that I place my fear not in them, not in the world. This is what he says. Have no fear of them, verse 26. Why? I mean, if people are going to twist and turn the things that we say and make them sound different than they are, and try to make us seem like we’re evil and wicked people and say all kinds of horrible things about us, like we’re in line with demons and all those kinds of things, which you just talked about in verse 25. Why not fear? He gives a couple reasons here. First of all, he says the truth will be revealed. Now that’s not always on my timetable. There’s times I would like for the truth to be revealed in a certain way, a certain time, a certain place.

And God doesn’t promise it’s all going to happen the way I want it to happen. But the reality is it is going to be revealed. The truth will come out. So don’t get so caught up in the part that I can’t control. That’s what God’s telling me, both here and other places in Scripture. I just need to be focused on the truth itself and not worry so much about all the details. For nothing is covered that will not be revealed. It’s all going to be made known at some point. And if someone is maligning me, someone is saying hateful things about me, if they are they are falsely accusing me, it’s going to come out. The truth will be revealed. What is said in the dark will come to light.

And what you hear whispered, it’s going to be proclaimed on the house tops. The truth is going to be made evident one way or another. But maybe more so even than that is just the reality of the situation. That those who sometimes we may fear because of persecution, oppression, mocking, whatever it may be, they have a very limited amount of power. They can kill the body. That’s the limit. Maybe they can in our culture try to cancel us or get us fired from a job. People like to do those kinds of things in our culture. It’s just how things sort of work, it seems. But that’s the limit, right? That’s the limit of what we can do. It’s material things, fleshly things in this life.

On the other side, he says, this is what we ought to be fearing. Instead, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Again, this requires more of a long-term perspective. If all I’m doing is thinking in the moment for today, I’m going to have a hard time with some of these instructions. You know, if I see the possibility of losing my job or someone threatening my family or whatever it might be, and I see that today in the moment, it makes it a little bit tough to have this long-term perspective that he’s asking us to have here. The truth will come out. This is a lot like Revelation. We’ve been studying through the book of Revelation in our class. Very similar to how this works.

How long, O Lord? How long will you let the evil and the wicked and the darkness take over our world? And what he’s saying in that book is God’s working behind the scenes in ways we probably don’t even understand. So leave that to God. Remember how he started with this? Don’t take all these supplies with you. Trust God. That’s where he starts this with his disciples. Speak truth, trust God, keep moving. That’s the first part of this section. And the principle still applies to us in this next part of this section about not fearing. Trust God, keep moving. Proclaim truth. Fear the right things. And then he doubles down on this a little bit and says, God is in so much control. Kids always like this because it’s real vivid.

He’s in so much control, he can number even the hairs on your head. Some of you have a lot of hair. Right here up front. Some others don’t. A little easier. But these kind of illustrations make a lot of sense, right? I mean, you can you can’t even number the hairs on your head. You run your fingers through your hair, or maybe you go get a haircut and there’s all this hair on the ground. I mean, nobody wants to sit there and try to count all of that. But fear the one who knows. Fear the one who knows the numbers of hair on your head. This is how well he knows you, knows your situation. This is how much he cares about you. He cares even about the sparrows.

The most unimportant animals in our thinking. Right? The littlest things. God knows and values that. How much more does he value you and me? How much more? And so the message here is again to trust God and allow things to be in his control. To not always be trying to take control in situations which often are beyond our control. What we can control is whether or not we’re going to speak truth, whether or not we’re going to keep moving in our mission to do the will of God. These are the types of things that we can control. Leave the rest to God. If somebody wants to take our life or someone wants to take our job, someone wants to threaten our family, that’s up to them.

And we can’t control what everybody else does. All that I control and you control is whether or not we’re going to speak truth and follow Jesus in the things that we’re doing. That’s the encouragement here.

One can kill the body, but one can destroy both soul and body. He is the one to fear.

3. Follow Jesus Over Peace

And then there’s this really troubling statement by Jesus in verse 34. Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

What is the one thing you wish? What is the answer? People all easy. Oh, world peace. You know. I’m here to tell you this morning that world peace is not the highest good. And Jesus makes that clear in this text. The most important thing to Jesus is not world peace. And that’s not because Jesus doesn’t want peace. But what he realizes can’t happen is fake peace. When we try to pretend things are okay when they’re not. And so what he’s saying here is you follow me, Jesus, you follow Jesus over compromise, over seeking things like peace instead of truth. There’s a really famous song that most of you probably know by John Lennon. Imagine. Imagine there’s no heaven, he says. It’s easy if you try. No hell below us.

Above us, only sky. Imagine all the people living for today. The next line after this says, imagine all the people live in life in peace. To whatever extent people subscribe to this mentality, I will suggest there is no hell below us because it’s on earth. That’s what happens when we try to live this way.

And essentially, what he’s saying is there’s really no meaning to anything. There is essentially no truth. Everybody’s just living for the moment, living for today. They’re living for peace. But peace, true peace, only comes on the foundation of truth. It would be absolute chaos to actually live this way, and as I said earlier, when it is tried, that is the result. There are actually Russian novels that talk about this very thing, crime and punishment being one of them. This is the way this works. When you set out to live this kind of life, you end up guilt ridden. You end up realizing that all of this talk about peace and the brotherhood of man and all this is completely fake and empty when it’s not based on any kind of substantial morality or truth behind it.

And so while it may seem extreme here to see Jesus’ words about how the point of this is not peace. I’m bringing a sword, and I’m going to set people against each other. Actually, all he’s recognizing, again, is the reality of the situation. When you speak truth into the world, it comes at a cost. And what he’s asking his disciples to do is measure that cost and be willing to take it. Because that is actually what is best for people in the world, is to realize what truth is and adhere to that truth, even in the midst of difficulty and struggle, because truth comes before peace. Truth comes before life. That’s why he tells them you should be willing to die for it. There’s something bigger than here and now.

The mission that he gives the disciples, and then the mission that he ultimately gives all of us is something bigger than the things that we have in this life. And so we speak truth into a world even when it comes at a cost. And we place our fears in the right things in God Himself, who controls the destiny of eternity. And we follow Jesus over peace or agreeableness or compromise, or all the things that the world wants us to come into. To try to say it’s all okay, just to believe whatever you want. Even among the religious, when truth is neglected, it leads to fake peace, to chaos. And so Jesus says to follow himself, follow him, not passivity, not agreeableness. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

He’s not talking here about kind or hateful. It’s not his message. This is not the kind of battle that Jesus is talking about. This is not about physical war. I’ve already referenced back to the Sermon on the Mount already, but you will remember in the Sermon on the Mount, he talks about turning the other cheek. And when it comes to violence and aggression and that sort of thing, he’s saying, don’t participate in that. Then he goes on to say, love your enemies and pray for them. So the idea here is not physical violence, physical war. This is about spiritual war. It’s about standing firm in the truth and rejecting compromise and mere agreeableness and passivity in the name of peace. It is boldly speaking truth unapologetically to the world and to the people around us.

Because peace is for those who stand in truth. As you enter the house, greet it, he tells his disciples. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.

4. Follow Me, Not Family

And anything else is fake and empty. And so he tells them when they’re rejected, when they’re not listened to, when the truth is not taken in, shake off the dust from your feet, and you move on. But the surprises keep coming. He says, follow me, not family. Man, that hurts. I’ve come to set a man against his father, verse 35. And a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Let me just point out again that what Jesus is pointing out here is not that he wants these things to happen, but these are the natural results of what takes place when people reject truth. If you have a house where people are adhering to truth, and some people are not adhering to truth, there is going to be contention.

There are going to be problems, and Jesus recognizes this is going to happen. When he’s speaking truth into the world, and when his disciples are speaking truth into the world, there’s going to be some people who listen and some people who don’t. It’s not that Jesus comes out and wants to create problems. It’s just the reality of the situation. It’s the cost of listening, heeding, and speaking truth. And Jesus doesn’t shy away from the reality. So when people oppose Jesus, it often will create tension and animosity and problems and difficulties. Verse 37. What he’s trying to help us understand here is value. Right? It’s not that he doesn’t want us to love our fathers or our sons or our mother or any of those kinds of things.

It’s not that Jesus doesn’t want us to do those things, but he’s talking here about value, right? So he says, Whoever loves father or mother more than me. He wants you to love your father and your mother. But what he doesn’t want is for you to love your father and your mother more than him and more than truth. What he doesn’t want is us to adhere to family more than we do the truth of Jesus Christ. And why does Jesus want that? Is that because he’s mean and ugly and wants to say things that hurt our feelings? No, it’s because it’s what’s best for us. He wants us to hear the truth and believe it and follow it. Because in the end, what he actually wants for all of us is great reward.

5. The Reward for Those Who Are Faithful

This is scattered all through the text, and I haven’t really talked about it yet at all throughout Matthew 10. But as I read it, you heard this, as he’s going through the difficulties and the struggles, the obstacles, the persecution, the oppression, the false accusation, all of those kinds of things through the text, mixed in there with all of that is the reward for those who are faithful. And of course, the Sermon on the Mount talks about this too. Blessed are you who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. In verse 22, you will be hated, he says, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. Again, a lot like Revelation. Sounds very similar. Verse 32 Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven.

And then the big statement at the end of the discourse whoever finds his life will lose it, he says in verse 39. Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Right? So he’s saying, Follow me, not family, follow me, not even your own desires. Take up your cross and follow after me. You have to get rid of your own passions and desires. Die to self, but if you will do that, if you will lose yourself, you will find it. You will find your life. Whoever receives you receives me. And whoever receives me receives him who sent me. And the one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward. And the one who receives a righteous person because he’s a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward.

Whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward if we are faithful to the end, if we’ll take the cost for speaking truth, if we’ll fear the right things, if we will value truth above peace, we’ll not compromise, we will not be agreeable to a world that’s uninterested in truth. Jesus says, there will be reward in the end. This is his promise.

Matthew chapter 5. It’s not because things go so well in this life. They might. I mean, we follow the wisdom of Scripture in places like Proverbs. Things might go well for the most part, but there’s really no guarantee of that. It’s not really about that. Blessed are the persecuted, because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It’s what is to come. It’s the relationship they have with God. It’s eternity that is waiting for us. It’s not about the good things necessarily that we can have here, the blessings in this life. It’s that we have chosen wisely not to follow the world, but to follow to be a disciple of the one who does have all the answers. And as we get further into the gospel of Matthew, particularly chapter 11, we’ll see where real peace comes from.

Conclusion

It’s not from not wanting to talk, it’s not from avoiding difficult discussions. It’s about coming to Jesus and standing for truth. And if we’ll do that, he promises us he will give us rest. That’s true peace. Maybe you need that this morning. You realize you need to be speaking truth. It’s very easy to compromise. It’s very easy to side with the world when the pressures are on us, when people make fun of us or mock us for the things that we believe. But Jesus is calling us to his mission to speak into the world the things that are right and accurate, to not back down from what is true. To be faithful, so that in the end we will be saved if we endure. This morning that might mean for you, stepping out in faith and giving your life to Jesus Christ, saying you’re ready to make that decision.

You want to be baptized into Christ. It doesn’t matter what the world thinks, it doesn’t matter what your family thinks. You’re ready to follow him and give your life to him. And you can do that symbolically in the waters of baptism. Die to yourself and come up a new person now walking with him. Maybe you’ve done that in the past and you realize life just hasn’t been lived according to that testimony. This is what you testified. You said that’s what you’re doing, but you’re realizing that’s not what’s happening, and you want to make that right because you hear Jesus’ call to mission in Matthew 10. Can we help you do that this morning? Why don’t you come as we stand and we stand?