Go Into All the World: More Than Just Observing
This week Pastor Christie Owings brought a message about what our house does in the nations, walking through Matthew 28:16-20 — the Great Commission — and challenging us with a single word tucked into verse 20 that changes everything: observe.
Worship, doubt, authority, and presence
The passage opens with the eleven disciples going to the mountain Jesus appointed, and it says plainly: "when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted." That's a striking detail to build a commission on. Even in the middle of worship, there were people doubting — real people, just like us. And it's right there, in that mixed room of worship and doubt, that Jesus speaks: "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples... 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." Worship, then authority, then presence. He doesn't wait for our doubt to disappear before commissioning us.
What "observe" actually means
We spent time this week unpacking that word "observe," because in today's culture we tend to hear it as something passive — to look at, to watch, to notice. And honestly, that's how a lot of us live our faith: we observe scripture the way we observe social media, scrolling past, maybe commenting, rarely changing. We can gain head knowledge of the Word without it ever becoming heart knowledge. But the word Jesus actually used means something much closer to obey — an unwavering, unconditional keep-and-obey, not a suggestion to consider when convenient. As it was said Sunday, "it's not a suggestion... it is that is something that we are to obey." Jesus isn't just a king of one nation or one culture — He's described in the text as sovereign over everything, and when a sovereign king says "obey," that carries real weight.
Obedience that costs something
This isn't obedience in the abstract. We heard real, specific stories of what obeying has looked like for our own church family — selling a car to fund a mission trip to Taiwan and Cambodia, scrapping and rewriting a message multiple times because the Holy Spirit kept redirecting it right up until Sunday morning, stepping into a "comfort zone of everything in order" and choosing to trust God's timing instead. As it was put simply: "we don't grow in our comfort zone."
What obedience has produced around the world
Then the message turned outward, to what God has actually done through this church's obedience over the years. In Sierra Leone, a ministry given to this church back in 2019 — one that began in genuinely dangerous, difficult circumstances — is now flourishing under a leader who serves not for money or title but simply because he loves God, with house churches multiplying, disciples being made, and even vocational training happening alongside the gospel. Through Joshua Nations, 19 former inmates have been welcomed into churches, five ordained into ministry, and two are now leading churches of their own — testimony that echoed from the front, since the one sharing it had once been an inmate himself. In Cuba, ministry partners continue spreading hope and meeting both physical and spiritual needs in a genuinely hard season for that country. Through the Akha Outreach Foundation in Thailand, children like one young letter-writer — who hasn't seen his mother in three years and is being raised by aging grandparents — are being cared for because people here chose to obey a nudge to sponsor a child, write a letter, show up.
The pattern underneath it all
None of this happened because a strategy was perfectly executed. It happened because people obeyed — imperfectly, sometimes reluctantly, sometimes after wrestling with God about it first — and then watched Him do what only He can do with a "yes." That's the whole shape of the Great Commission: worship, even with some doubt in the room; authority that isn't ours but is given to us to carry; obedience that costs something real; and a promise that He is with us always, to the end of the age.
Something to sit with this week
Where has your faith slipped into "observing" — watching, agreeing, maybe even commenting — without actually obeying? And is there a specific nudge from the Holy Spirit you've been putting off because it doesn't fit neatly into your comfort zone?
Catch The Fire Boulder meets Sundays at 10:00 AM at 700 W South Boulder Rd, Lafayette, CO. We'd love to have you join us. Watch the full message or plan your visit.
