Missions Focus: From Now On...We Must Keep Going

That is Ryan Epley. He's your guy. What a great, great pastor you guys have. So what a blessing. Been over seven years of him being here, shepherding this much.

We are, we are so grateful to be able to be back. We were trying to calculate. I think I was here about 13 years ago. 12. 13 years, maybe 14 for a Friday night Missions California conference years back.

And so it's a pleasure to come back and be here again. We've actually visited a time or two just to worship with you guys when we're in town. So anyway, we are in the middle of a missions focused weekend. I don't know if you noticed that. Just a normal decor.

Little different sometimes. But because of that missions focus, Ryan asked if I would come and be a part of this by preaching the Sunday morning message, which is an incredible honor and a. I really appreciate that. But he then said, now it's a missions focused missions message, but it's in the context of our exposition of Acts. So you'll work it in there. I'm going like to an exposition of Acts 18 and then have a mission sermon.

Well, here we are. So I hope you have no afternoon plans. No, no. We have a lot to look forward to. And today the passage we're looking at as we're continuing on in this great series in Acts and is what happens in the church when God starts doing what he's been doing here at West Cabarrus.

What happens in a church when he puts his hand on a special people, his own people, called by the name of Christ to be his own. And he says, I want you to be my messengers with this message of the gospel to the ends of the earth. And I want you to start it right where you are. And so as you watch the flow, as Ryan has taken you through the book of Acts through these months, the pivotal points are pretty clear. But Acts 1:8 kind of gives an outline for the whole book.

You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and then you shall be my witnesses. And then it says in Jerusalem. And the first part of Acts is in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, as it talks about going out into those areas. And then Acts 13 forward goes to the ends of the earth. And so we're in that ends of the earth series, part of the book of Acts now.

And in chapter 18, Paul has already taken the Gospel down the shoreline in what's called Achaia. And he has now arrived at the city of Corinth. And so I invite you to take your time and open up that Bible and let's look in Acts 18. I'm just going to read the first 11 verses, although we'll be focusing on what happens through the entire verse 17. But let's listen to this together.

He's just arrived in town, he's trying to sort out what this next season is gonna look like. And I think, let's be honest, many of us here are wondering what the next season is gonna look like for us. What's it gonna be? What's God gonna do next in our lives? Well, I don't know exactly pinpointing what's gonna be particularly applied to each one of you, but I do know this, it's gonna get gooder and gooder.

I mean, it is what God has in store for you and he wants all of you in that. The missionaries, while they go, they are a representative sampling of those who are being called out this morning to be faithful witnesses for Christ. And it may be that you're supposed to take a trip somewhere and move somewhere. It may be that you just need to move out from where you are to your next door neighbor or to your co worker or your teammate or your classmate or coworker, whatever. But God is not going to let us sit still where he has this commission out there.

So let's kind of think through Paul has come to Christ. That testimony is described in Acts chapter nine. And as he gets through the description of that, he's saying, now, Ananias, I want you to go to this guy Paul. He's been blinded by the light. He saw Jesus.

He can't see anything. I want you to go to him and I want you to tell him that he is going to be my servant and he is going to suffer many things. Well, that's exciting. I think I want to be a missionary. He'd get to suffer many things, but that's what he said.

And then it says that he was then opened eyes, could see and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. This is in Acts, chapter nine. And within days, he's beginning his ministry of proving to others that Jesus is the Messiah. Got him kicked out of town. He had to escape with his life.

So the suffering part came right at the beginning. So as we look at this passage, let's hear what happens as he comes into this phase of his life. Nine chapters later in the book, but also many years later in his actual life of following Christ. That unconditional, yes, I will follow you, Lord. Jesus came with all kinds of unexpected twists and turns, as is done for each of you.

So let's hear what this passage says. After these things, he left Athens. This is verse one, chapter 18. After these things, he left Athens and went to Corinth. He found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla.

Because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome, he came to them. And because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them. And they were working for by trade there were tentmakers. And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. That's what he was doing in Acts 9.

Right. So he's still doing the same thing. When Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the Word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. When they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, your blood be on your own heads. I am clean from now on.

I will go to the Gentiles. Then he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next to the synagogue. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, were believing, were being baptized. And the Lord said to Paul in the night, by vision, do not be afraid any longer.

Go on speaking. Do not be silent, for I am with you. And no man will attack you in order to harm you. For I have many people in this city. And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the Word of God among them.

Let's pray. Father, we want to be taught the Word of God this morning. The frailty of the human instrument, me, the preacher, is nothing compared to the power of the Spirit working through the spoken and read and preached word. Lord, let this Word have its way in our hearts. Let us be ready to respond to whatever your give us to do.

And let us give you our unqualified yes. To wherever you want us to go. Lord, you are faithful and you are sufficient for anything that you give us. And there is joy in it. For Christ's sake, we thank you.

Amen. Have any of you ever gotten in a position where you committed to something only to find out later it was a whole lot more than you bargained for? Yeah, I think most of us here would kind of go, yeah, yeah, man. When I went off to college, I thought, you know, I'd had a physics class at Graham High School in Graham, North Carolina. So when I got to Wake Forest University, I'll just sign up for physics because very logical.

Chemistry is a four hour lab. Bio was three and physics was two. I was such a scholar. I got in there and realized I had no idea what was going on. Long story short, I ended up being able to drop the course with special permission of the dean.

And I was so, so out of it. He just kind of went, you know, sometimes you just go brain dead, son. You just are plain stupid. You don't know this stuff. He didn't say it that way, but that was the message that I got.

But I bit off a lot more than I could chew. And sometimes we do that. We sign up for a contract to buy something or we invest in some kind of commitment that we're gonna make. And all of a sudden people are very demand, just stuff happens. And I read a story a few years ago about a young couple, they were on their way to the hospital to give birth to their fourth child.

So this was not like they were rookies. They didn't know what was going on. But on the way to the hospital they realized we're not gonna make it. And so they're pulled over to the side of the road. Now back at the.

This is not unexpected.

Nine months have passed. They know what's going to happen, right? And the 911 call is frankly hilarious if you're not the lady. But they're screaming and we're not going to make it, we're not going to make it. And they're saying, calm down.

How couldn't you call? CPU said calm down, we can't, you know, and this is going on. And then the conversation starts, I don't want to do this.

I hate to break it to you, but that's kind of too bad. You already made a commitment several months ago and you gonna have this baby. And it might not be in a sterile hospital room with all the accoutrements of that, but that baby is not paying attention to where the environment is outside, he's recognizing that he's gotta get from where he is to outside. And so the rest of the story comes through. But the baby was born, everybody was fine.

But I thought about that. You know, what happens when. When we make a commitment months before to something, or maybe in our Christian lives, years before to something. And then it starts getting, you know, learn how to do my. It's time to breathe.

This Christian life is getting hard. And then we start saying, I don't want to do this anymore. I can't make that kind of commitment. I'm not going to do that. And the Lord says, I'm sorry, you've already made a commitment.

And when you became a follower of mine, Romans 8 says that when you trust in Christ and you become a believer in Jesus and you're born again, how are you born? You're born of the Spirit. And the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within you and Marks you as my own. And you say, yes, Lord, I am yours. Born of the Spirit, I am now yours.

And then in the Acts 1 passage, verse 8, where he says, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Why? For you shall be my witnesses. It came with the birthright. People.

We don't decide. I don't know if I. I want to follow Jesus, but I don't know if I really want to be his witness.

I know I'm pregnant, but I just don't know if I want to go through childbirth. No, it's a part of the deal. It is a part of his calling in our lives. And so we see the apostle Paul modeling that for us. He's showing what it looks like.

Here he now is in the city of Corinth. He's been in all kinds of birth pain situations in various places before. He's been thrown out of cities, he's been almost drowned in sea. He's been kind of circumstances where they were trying to kill him. He's been in Damascus, let out of the city, walled in a basket.

He's had rocks on it. And he's been left for dead. And he knows his Christian life is sweet. No, he knows that there's suffering involved. He knows that there's pain in the process.

But he has yielded his ways to the Lord. And Lord. You got this and you got me. Is that what you're saying to him this morning? Uh, that's not what I'm saying at all.

Well, is it not supposed to be what we're saying? He wants all of us. So take hope. Many of you are here with a missions focused weekend unfolding all around you. And don't you think for a moment that God's not gonna speak to your heart about what your part in this is.

He's got your number and he's got your heart and he wants to tell you what next steps to expect. Well, let's see what happened in this passage. What happened with him. He says, the work of the gospel has got to go on. Whether I'm excited about it or not, or whether I want to go through the birth pains of what it's going to involve, I know that the work of the gospel has to go on.

And so his first approach to the city, he's trying to figure out, lord, I can't go there and have this self made support team waiting for me to get there. And when he writes a letter to this church later on, he said, look, I didn't come there offering the gospel with a price tag to it. He says, I didn't want to profit from it. I don't want to give you the idea that I want you to be my supporters financially so I can do this work. He says, no, I wanted to offer the gospel free of charge.

So when I get there, I don't have a support team. I don't have a West Cabara sending offerings to me. I don't even have anybody in Jerusalem who's got my back. I don't have anybody in Antioch who cares what I'm dealing with with the support. I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

So he gets there and he realizes he's gonna have to be creative. The work has to keep going. And so he is going to be required to be creative in how he does this. And we'll see more about that later on with Priscilla and Aquila. But sometimes when we do ministry, God calls us to get very ingenious and creative.

I remember one friend of ours used to say, she prayed, God, give me an idea. Isn't that a great prayer? I don't know what to do next, but give me an idea. And so Paul got an idea. He goes to that place and he finds that he has a relationship with Priscilla and Aquila, as we'll see in a minute.

But when we are doing God's will, sometimes we've just got to say, lord, in this place, at this time, what do you want me to do? Kathy and I were in the Philippines back in February and and met a young couple who were sent out from the church there in the Philippines, to plant a church, of all places in Vietnam. Not a real friendly place to the gospel. But they had gone there, and he was doing secular employment to be able to support them there. And then he begins to say, lord, give me an idea.

How do I connect with people in Vietnam? How do I relate to them? And he said as he studied the culture and figured out where he could actually approach people without creating a big furor. And he says, I decided there were two places I could go to coffee houses. It's just a general sharing of ideas place.

You go to coffee house and you just start up conversations with people, and you drink coffee and you spend money, and they're glad you're there. I said, oh, well, that makes sense. We do that in Raleigh. We go to coffee houses and you see all kinds of people having these conversations. But the second shocked me, he says, the second I look for Mexican restaurants.

I mean, of course, they're all over Vietnam. I mean. But he said, actually, Mexican restaurants are everywhere. And the owners love it when you come in, and they love it when you sit there for a while, and they love it when you have these conversations with people. And so he said his strategy creatively was to find ways to go into those places, coffee houses and Mexican restaurants.

I'm thinking, like, I don't remember that from my theology classes, and I don't remember the missiological thinking saying, you know, Biblically, you need to find a good coffee house. And if you can just find a place that's got really good salsa, you know, that's important. No, that's. You know, but that's just what they're doing. And so he's saying, we gotta be creative if we're gonna keep moving with the gospel.

And so the work of the gospel brings with it a lot of fears that I'm not gonna succeed. It's gonna be hard. I'm not gonna be able to make it. And so pressures of fatigue come on. You've got all this stuff.

He went from city to city to city. And how do you think he got there? He walked, or he was on shipboard, but in this place, he's in Achaia. And so he's walking from Philippi down the coast, one city after the next, doing the work of the mission. He's worn out.

And so he gets there, and that fatigue is starting to take a toll on him. And he's beginning to be a little discouraged in this passage. And so the Lord comes to him and says, look, it's gonna be hard, but don't be afraid. You don't have to be afraid, Paul. I got many people in this city.

Nobody's gonna harm you. You're gonna have an extended period of time to work and serve Christ. And so the success of his ministry was not allaying his fears. But the word of God just spoke to him. Don't be afraid.

We're gonna take care of this. And we'll see more about that in a second. But he says, look, you got people who are coming to Christ. Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, has already trusted Christ. The leader of the synagogue and then his family trusted Christ.

And then many other Corinthians were coming to Christ and believing and being baptized. Now, most of us missionaries, to correct me if I'm wrong, most of us would think that is a good thing. Amen. I mean, this is good. People are coming to Christ.

They're being baptized. This new network of believers is starting to form. And yet Paul was needing God to say, son, it's going to be okay. It's going to be all right. Don't be afraid.

And so the work of the Gospel can bring hardships, indeed, that's true, that are going to be endured. But the Lord is saying, I have got this covered for you, so whatever it means for you to be my witness, together, you and I, we're the majority, and we're going to win. We're going to take it to the next place, and we'll do whatever needs to be done. So the resistance and the antagonism came from the synagogue people shortly after he'd gotten there. He's trying to reason with them, talking on the Sabbath, explaining to them Jesus is the Christ.

And shortly, they're going like, we don't want any more of this. And it says they started resisting and. And blaspheming. And so Paul says, blood on your own heads. I'm clean from now on.

This is verse six from now on. That doesn't mean for the rest of his career, but in Corinth, from now on in this city, you're on your own. I'm going to the Gentiles. I gave you Jews a crack at it because you know the Scriptures. I was explaining from the Scriptures who Jesus is helping to prove that he's the Messiah.

Help. You're not having any of it. I'm gonna tell the Jews that story. They don't believe it. I'm gonna then go tell the Gentiles.

And we Gentiles say, thank you, Jesus. I mean, I am so grateful that Paul went to Gentiles like me. And so as he's beginning to do that, that resistance is there. And he just says, lord, there's another plan. What's gonna be the next plan?

I'm going next door. Long journey. He'd been 50 miles from Athens to Corinth. Now he's in Corinth. He goes from the synagogue next door.

How cool is that? Titius Justus is a worshiper of God lives, happens right next door to the synagogue, who was a believer in God. And that's when he began his 18 months of ministry there. God is saying, I've got this. I prepared the way for you before you ever got to town.

The things that I am doing, you don't even know. We're gonna find out someday all the paths that God has smoothed out for us before we got there. And we'll never see it in this lifetime when we get to heaven. That's gonna be an awesome video. All the things that he did to make it clear for us to go to the next place.

Titius Justus had been preparing that, and he didn't even know. And God was working in Paul to make that happen. And so what happens? He takes this enduring of a problem and sees that now, if you do what I've asked you to do, you're gonna enjoy my favor. It doesn't mean that it's all gonna work out all the time.

Right. As a matter of fact, there are going to be hard times in what you're doing. You will suffer. Acts 9 says there will be hardships in Paul's letter, repeating that theme to Timothy in his letter to him in chapter three of the second letter, he said, listen, if you make a commitment to follow Christ, you're going to be persecuted. It comes with the territory.

But he was not trying to frighten him away. He was just assuring that in the middle of all of that, your God is preparing a way for you to be able to be effectively favored by me. It's going to be an awesome experience. Let's just take the journey and find out what happens. And so how are the evidences of God's favor apparent in this passage that we're looking at?

Well, it starts off with the encouraging partnership that he starts with Priscilla and Aquila. Deep bonds were there. They're tent makers together. They have the same livelihood. They're both not from Corinth.

They have a kindred spirit in that they're outsiders and they bond quickly over their tent, making trade and being able to do what they're Going to do. And then Paul breaking free on the Sabbath to go and reason with the folks, first in the synagogue and then in the house of Titius Justus, this wonderful partnership there. Then what happens is that Paul is not inventing things on the fly. He has trusted practices that already bear much fruit. Things that he knows, tried and true things.

These will bear much fruit for the glory of God. Not the same methods always, but the same message every time. So again, from Acts 9, when he's preaching and teaching in the synagogues there and choosing to try to convince the Jews that Jesus is the Christ, proving that that's the case, he goes from town to town to town. And whenever he's able to do so, he finds a synagogue. As he comes into this Achaia region, he starts off up in Macedonia and starts working his way down the coast.

And the first place he goes is Philippi. And he goes in to go to the synagogue to reason with the Jews. There's no synagogue in Philippi. Can't find one there. So he goes down to the shore and.

And he can't find the synagogue, but he finds some women down there, and they begin to share the Gospel there. But his message is not changed. His methodology. There's no synagogue. I gotta do something here.

So he goes to the next place and he moves on down the coast. And as he's moving down the coast, he goes from Philippi to Thessalonica. Thessalonica has an effective ministry for a while. He starts off with that tried and true. Go to the synagogue, reason with the Jews.

They'll throw you out. Eventually you go to the Gentiles. Then he goes down to Berea. I love the passage in Acts 17 that says Bereans were much more noble than those in Thessalonica because they searched the Scripture to find out if this was really true. And so he goes to Berea and he does what he's doing there.

And then from Berea, he goes on down to Athens. No synagogue there. He goes to the Marketplace. But the message is declaring Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And he goes from there now to Corinth, finds the synagogue again.

The method, boom, changes, alters. Now he's in this little house next door to the synagogue. Doing what? Proving that Jesus is the Christ, declaring that salvation is in no other name but the name of Jesus. And that's his job.

That's what he's called to do. So he reasons in the synagogue, persuades the Jews and Greeks, then he devotes himself to The Word. That's a part of what he does. He solemnly testifies to the Jews that Jesus is the Christ. Verse 5.

He devoted Himself completely after his brothers came in with Silas and Timothy. I don't know if this means that he stopped making tents at that point. I think that's what it does mean. But he completely devoted himself to the ministry of the Word and then to teaching what he was learning. How cool would it have been to be at Tishas House and listen to Paul coming in each week saying, okay, guys, this is what I've learned this week, and this is what I want you to know.

Meanwhile, he's writing a big portion of the New Testament in letters, telling people what he's finding out, completely devoted to the Word and testifying that Jesus is the Messiah. And then his response to the rejection by the Jews in the synagogue. This ain't my first rodeo. I've been kicked out of nicer places than this, you know? So he goes next door and boom, for 18 months.

God gives him the privilege of a free and easy path for a while. Yeah, the Jews and the synagogue don't like you. Get over it. Crispus is a believer now. He was the head of that place.

Now you got a guy coming in named Sosthenes who's gonna be the leader of the synagogue, and he's not gonna like you very much at all. But that doesn't matter. For the next 18 months, you're gonna be taking that complete devotion to the Word. You're gonna be laying it out line upon line, precept upon precept. This is who the Messiah is.

Let me tell you about Jesus. And people were coming to faith, tried and true methods, going there again and again. And so he wasn't gonna let the absence of his first option keep him from doing what he was called to do. Any missionaries in the room think that that's something that you've experienced. You go with a game plan, and the Lord kind of goes, isn't that cute?

Now, let me show you what I want to do. I mean, you gotta have. The message is inviolable. Your doctrine is sound. You pay careful attention to yourself and what you teach.

But your methodology. You might have to go to a Mexican restaurant and a coffee house. You might have to go to a gentile worshiper of God who has nothing really to do with the synagogue. You might have to go to the Marketplace in Athens and hang out with philosophers who were babbling around all kinds of nonsense. You may have all kinds of different things, but your Mission does not change.

And here's the news. My dear friends, when you came to Christ and you were indwelt by the Spirit of God, your mission has not changed. You shall be my witnesses when the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon you. So what do we do with that? Well, he saw that people were believing the gospel.

He saw people were being baptized. He saw God was working in a certain way. And yet there was still that uncertainty in his heart. And that's when God has to come in and reassure him. As what he pointed out earlier in verses nine and ten, he says, look, I'm with you.

That should be enough, folks, for the Lord God Almighty to say, hey, I got you. I'm with you. Now together we can do amazing things, for I am with you. So in verse nine, chapter 18. Don't be afraid any longer.

Which indicates that he had been reasons unexplained, but he had been. Don't be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and do not be silent. I am with you. Nobody will attack you in order to do you harm. I got many people in this city.

Now let's get after it. So in the middle of all that 18 months moving, you don't think the Jews in the synagogue are just sitting on their hands? No, they're plotting, they're scheming. What can we do to stop this mess? Finally, after a period of time, they said, we've had enough.

We're going to Gallio, the proconsul of the whole state, the whole region, the Achaia region, and we're going to charge him with stopping this foolishness. We're going to make him stop the apostle Paul from teaching these strange doctrines and having people worship God in an unlawful way. And so God does something totally unexpected. We hear that. Oh, my goodness.

They were having a Bible study in that house, in the neighborhood and in the city said it was not zoned for that, and they couldn't do that anymore. Oh, what are we gonna do? What are we gonna do? Keep having the Bible study, maybe move it to the 711 down the street. I don't know what you do, but you don't stop.

You just keep going. You just keep doing what God's called you to do. So they go, we're gonna go to the authorities on this thing. So they went to the governing authority, Gallio. This is verse 12.

Proconsul of Achaia, the Jews, with one accord. Now, by the way, Sosthenes is now the. The head of a synagogue. At this point, Crispus has become A believer can't count on him anymore. He's on their team.

And that doesn't mean he just switched jerseys. That mean he actually became a born again follower of Christ. But now he's there. So now we got a new leader. Sosthenes is there.

And so all of the Jews with one accord, rose up against Paul. And they brought him before the judgment seat of the proconsul, saying, this man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law. And then this is a great picture when Paul was about to speak, he was about to open his mouth. He was ready to begin his defense. Gallio.

The proconsuls went, I hold a phone here. There was no phone. He just. I just said that. But he was saying, what if this were a matter of wrong or if he was committing a vicious crime?

Oh, Jews, it would be reasonable for me to put up with this matter, to put up with you. He said, but if there's questions about words and names and your own law, look after it yourself. He said, I am unwilling to be a judge in these matters. And then he drove them away from the judgment seat. They thought they had their ace in the hole here.

We're going to get the proconsul. He's going to shut down. Paul ministry is going to be shut down. Do you hear the culture around us trying to censor the voice of Christians these days?

If you are not aware that that's happening, wake up. But here's the thing. God's going like, I own the proconsuls. I'm the Lord of heaven and earth. You just do what I've called you to do.

Tisha's house is next door waiting for you. What is the next thing in the process? And so God used this pagan proconsul to be able to say, keep on going, keep on going, keep on going. Do what I've called you to do. Don't let anybody stop you.

The indifference and the lack of complicity with Galio did not do anything but encourage the flaming of more fire in Paul's heart. And they kept going. And so that's the part of the process. Now, at this point, you gotta say, what in the world motivated Paul to do this? Well, I got good news and bad news for you.

It's the same thing that motivates you and me. Well, I don't feel particularly motivated. Then you need to figure out what God intends and get on board with it. You made the commitment to follow Christ and all that. That means we did that when we came to Christ Lord, here Is my yes.

Now you fill in the details, and then somewhere along the gestation period, we kind of went, I'm not sure I want to do this. No, you're in. You're committed. And he's not going to damage you, he's not going to harm you, he's not going to embarrass you. He's not going to ruin you.

He's going to bless you as his witness. So what motivated him? What kept him going? Well, there are several things that motivate us the same way it motivated him. Just kind of walk through a couple of these and then finish up with giving you some practical suggestions as to what you need to be doing to get yourself ready.

Cause all of us need to get ready.

That's when you probably, in your heart, don't want to say amen, but it's true. We need to get ready. Okay, so what are the things that motivate them? First of all, just a simple matter of conviction. Is the gospel true?

Do I have the conviction that, yes, the Bible is true? It is invaluable from the Scriptures that there is salvation. Acts 4:12, salvation in no one else. Yeah, but that seems kind of narrow. Oh, if you saw how wide the mercy of Christ is, you'd realize how not narrow that is.

There is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father except by me. Now, do we have the conviction that that's true?

If we have the conviction that that's true and that Paul's saying, look, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. From the Jew first. You hear that in the synagogue. From the Jew first, then to the Greek.

It's the power of God to salvation. It is the message of the gospel. We have the same convictions that Paul had about the gospel. Or we should the culture. And many of the churches in this culture are proclaiming a different gospel, which is no gospel at all, that while Jesus is a way, he's not necessarily the way and definitely not the only way.

No, that's not true. The Scriptures are very clear. Paul was soundly convinced and convicted that this is the gospel. So we have to have gospel confidence through conviction. Secondly, if that's true, and it is, then something in us should stir compassion for lost people.

You shouldn't be able to go to the mall this afternoon and see thousands of people over there and not sense what Jesus saw. He saw the crowds and they were distressed and troubled because they were like sheep who were lost without a shepherd. And they're wandering around trying to figure out what's going on in life. And they're trying to figure out how to make ends meet. And they're trying to figure out with troubled marriages and with broken families and with illnesses and all kinds of.

They're trying to sort it out. And you know the answer and you know it's Jesus. Do you have compassion for them? Are you afraid that they might not accept what you would say to them? And so we kind of waffle a little bit now.

Paul had compassion like Jesus had compassion. He had conviction. Like all Bible believing, Christ centered, Christ focused folks have conviction that these things are true. The compassion is for those who don't know these things yet. And frankly, it's only good news.

That's what the word gospel is. It's only good news if it gets there in time. Third thing is that he had a command. He had a commission from Christ. We know what that is.

It's the Great Commission of Matthew 28. Go therefore and do what? Make disciples of all nations, teaching and baptizing all that. Well, we have the command. Was it just for the apostles?

No, it's for every born again spirit indwelt believer. We are to take the message of the Gospel and make disciples. That's our calling. Horner. Wait a minute.

I'm not a Greek scholar, but I know this much dangerous when we know just this much. But people have said, well, the imperative in the Great Commission is make disciples. And so therefore it is not really go as a, an imperative, it's make disciples as an imperative. And so sort of a movement started thinking, well, it means as you go. It's a participle.

So it's just going, make disciples. Well, that's convenient. Except as I'm going and as I'm, as I going, I don't end up in Nepal and they don't hear and I don't end up in Peru and they don't hear and I don't end up in Indonesia or Ukraine or Sweden or where I'll end up there unless I go. So I'm trying to think, what is the reason for there being a participle separate from an imperative until I have Greek scholar friends? Isn't it a blessing sometimes, not in general dinner conversation, but overall.

And they said, well, here's the thing. That participle go or going is actually the participle of attending circumstance. Oh, you're so blessed to know that. Right? I didn't see y' all write that down.

The participle of attending circumstance, which means that the participle takes the same force of the imperative. So in other words, go, by virtue of its position next to the imperative in that participle form means that it has the same form of a command. It is an imperative. You've got to go. You can't sit on the premises thinking that you're standing on the promises.

It doesn't work. You've got to get up and go somewhere. You've got to either go next door. You've got to get up from watching Netflix to go talk to your neighbor across the street. You've got to get up from somewhere and go on a trip somewhere.

As we're going to see Team Commissioned in a few minutes. You got to think in terms of, Lord, I am responsible for the Great Commission, and it is not multiple choice. Well, I'll either go to the neighborhood, or I'll either go to this culture, or I'll either go to the nations. West Cabarrus has the whole world under its commission. You don't pick and choose.

There's lost people everywhere who need the Gospel. Jesus commands us with this Great Commission. Go and tell them. I'm looking through and I'm not finding a recension clause somewhere in here. No, that was rescinded in the third century.

No, it's still in force. We are commanded to go and make disciples. That means all of us who are his or his witnesses. That's part of what he calls us to be. About the fourth compelling thing for him was a comprehension, an envisioning, a picturing an understanding of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

His second letter to this church in Corinth, that's what he says. He said, we are being transformed from one stage of glory to the next. This is in 2 Corinthians 8. And we have not yet seen all that he's going to make us to become. But then he goes into chapter nine and he says, here's what's going on.

The God of this world has blinded the eyes of the people here so that they cannot see the glory of God in the face of Christ. But the light has come. We have that light. And our testimony in Christ is that I was blind, but now I see I was dead. I've been made alive.

I was unrighteous. I had been made righteous in Christ. I have seen the glory, and I can't stop talking about it. That great quote by John Piper says worship, I mean, excuse me, missions exist because worship doesn't. Think about that.

As long as people who were created to worship God are not worshiping him, missions still is a top priority in the kingdom. That's what we're supposed to be out. He goes on to say this worship, therefore is the fuel. It's the goal of missions. It's the goal of missions because in missions, we simply aim to bring the nations into the white hot enjoyment of God's glory.

The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples and the greatness of God. Missions begins and ends in worship.

Wow. If we're not worshiping him, we're not thinking about him and talking about him and praising him and reveling in the beauty of the glory and the splendor of Christ. Told the earlier service. If you've been with Kathy and me for a few minutes, I've got this wonderful thing called iPhone that's got pictures of my family on there. And just in a few minutes you're gonna be looking at pictures of my sons and daughters in law and grandkids, because why I am really excited about those folks and I want you to see them and you're very polite and you kind of go, yes, isn't that sweet?

Could you put it up? I've got an iPad. It's bigger, it's got more pictures. But we talk about that, which we're excited about. If we're not talking about Christ, what does that say about the level of our passion for the comprehension of the glory of God in the face of Christ?

Paul had that passion. The fifth thing, and this is sort of the thing, because all the disciples had those four things. The conviction, yes. Compassion, no question. The command was already there.

And they had seen the glory of God in the face of Christ. What had to happen had not happened at the time of the writing of the Gospels, at the end of chapter 24 of Luke, Jesus had already given all this instruction. He had already told them the things that were going to happen. But then, in order to keep them from being foolish and rushing out and trying to do something about it in human strength, he says, now you are to wait. This is verse 49 of Luke 24.

You are to wait here in Jerusalem. Wait with a commission out there to reach the nations with the gospel of Christ. Wait. Why would you want us to wait? Because you're not ready yet.

You wait in Jerusalem until you have been clothed with power from on high. You don't have it yet. So Then we come to Acts chapter 2. You will receive power when. When the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

And then you'll be my witnesses. Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth. And in Acts chapter two, boom, the power comes, the mission begins, and the world starts hearing that Jesus saves. That's the story of the Gospel. That's what it's all about for us.

And so we have to understand that we cannot operate apart from the presence and the working of Christ in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. And many of us are not walking by the Spirit. We're not focused on Christ. We're not going for him. Because the Spirit is not quickening and making us alive and empowered to go do what he's called us to do.

We need to do what Paul says to the Galatian Church. You need to walk by the Spirit and in the power of the Spirit, watch God's hand. God's hand work in me. So what do you do to understand all this? Well, the net out of all that is this, that missions should matter to us more than it presently does because it matters to God more than we presently understand.

Let me say that again, if I can repeat it. Missions should matter more to us than it presently does because it matters to God more than we presently understand. So how do we get ready for it? You gotta get ready. Gotta be ready to move to the next thing.

Well, just a few ideas, sorting this thing out. You live in a constant state of preparedness for what God might call you to do and when he might call you to move. Did some of you watch the news this week when the plane was hijacked coming across Saudi Arabia or uae and the people were saved because there were people on the plane who, who jumped up and were ready for action. Now, the reason for the hijacking is people are guessing but probable that there were over 150 Israelis on that plane. And the jihadist warrior, whoever it was, was trying to kill as many Jews as he could at one time.

Significant oversight. Every Jew on that plane 21 yards and older, trained in the military of Israel, and they are prepared for anything. And the guy who was the hero is a plumber. Hit him with a wrench. No, he didn't do that.

But he was prepared. And all these others were ready. And they took down the goo and the hijacker was not hijacking anymore and the readiness of this whole thing. So here's the thing. You and I have to be ready when God pulls the trigger for us.

When he says, okay, it's the Message Festival. It's October 4, 2026. This is your time. Are you ready? Well, no, Lord, I've still got that.

Well, let's get ready. You get equipped, you be ready to go, because there's no telling when I might call you. And this might be the time of the calling. You've got to be ready. And so how do we do it?

Well, first of all, we have to walk in a disciplined manner of word and prayer. Every day. We gotta be listening to the Lord reading his word, listening to, listen to his voice in prayer. We gotta be faithful in serving and even giving here because taking a plane ride is not going to make you faithful. You got to prove it here that you can be trustworthy.

Now third, you've got to be ready to be trained. How do I share the Gospel? How do I prove that Jesus is the Messiah? How do I get leadership training so that if I get called somewhere I can actually do something? Paul already had a mentality of apologetics and explaining and helping people understand and persuading before he got on the places where he was.

We need to have that training and learning. We need to take advantage of that. We need to be informed of needs and opportunities like you see around the exhibits in the room. You need to learn where you can plug in and where the need is. Great.

And then you need to streamline. Hear me out. You need to streamline your lifestyle to make sure that your options are actually available to you so that you are able to be ready. So with all that, are you ready and can you go and will you go? That's what God wants to know.

He said, you've already signed on the dotted line. You said, I will follow you, Lord Jesus. Okay, that means I get to call the shots, right? It may be next door for you or it may be to the destinations or anywhere in between, but I have the rights to call. But God, what if it gets hard?

Well, then from now on I won't do it this way, I'll do it that way. Well, what if I run into problems and I get afraid? Well, then you won't have to do it that way. From now on you'll do it this way. And that way you don't stop, you keep on going.

And that's what Paul's message is in verse six when he just says, from now on, we're going to the Gentiles. If you're not going to pay attention, I'm clean, but I'm going to the next place.

What is it that God's calling you to do where you are, to get you ready for where he wants you to be because he is not going to stop working through his people to get the gospel message out there. Amen. Three of you think yes, Amen. All right, let's pray. Father, how can we do anything but once we've made the commitment, why could we possibly think we would not follow through?

Lord, give us that heart, that passion, that willingness, that understanding of who we are in Christ, that we are not our own. We've been bought with a price and you own rights to whatever happens with us and you can call us to any place, anytime, anywhere to do what you've set us apart to do. Lord, may you find in us willing servants who are ready to be made ready to do whatever you have next for us. Lord, you want from us just a willingness, Unqualified, yes.

With your head still bowed and eyes closed. Let me just ask you, nobody looking around, if you think God is calling you to give an unqualified yes and let him fill in the details and maybe it's emissions and he's dealing with you about something. About that I would love to just have you take a moment. Not for me, but just for your own sake in this act, just slip up your hands, say lord, you are dealing me with about this. I need to sort it out.

Anyone else in the room just raise your hand. We got some raising their hands. Anybody else just take a moment and just. It might be the longest 12 inch rise of your hand that you've ever been to be able to say, well golly, I don't even want to admit this, but I believe God is calling me to do something and I don't know what it is, but he has my yes, Father. We want to pray that out of your people you will call more and more to embrace the vision that you have for us.

To be agents of reconciliation, to be proclaimers of gospel truth, to be evangelists and missionaries and pastors and teachers and next door neighbors to lost folks who are willing to take the moments that you give to us to share with them the hope of eternal life. Christ. Lord, we want these things to be done in your way, without fear, in the power of your spirit. May it be so for Christ's sake. Amen.

Let's worship this great king.