I want to talk to you about the contributors of the Great Commission. The contributors of the Great Commission, and I'm going to use this to make my text and get into the message. I want probably about 30 minutes, probably. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness, in hope of In hope of eternal life, I like this verse. In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, listen, promised before the world began. He was involved in the Great Commission before he even created the world. He had a promise of eternal life and hope in Christ before the world began. But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching which is committed unto me, according to the commandment of God, our Savior, to Titus, my own son, after the common faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Father, thank you for the opportunity, Lord, to be back in the service tonight. Those who've taken time to be here, we appreciate it, Lord, and all the kindness that's been shown me and my wife today. Lord, please bless the message, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Contributors of the Great Commission. I don't know who coined it the Great Commission, but that sure is a good name, isn't it? The Great Commission. Our Commander-in-Chief, the Lord Jesus, gave commission to us in the local assembly, the church, to preach the gospel, and nothing greater can you do or be involved in than in the work of this Great Commission. So I want us to consider the value of the Great Commission. I want you to see how valuable it is to you who are not saved. Maybe you're here today and you're not saved. I want you to see how valuable it is to you, but also I want you to see how valuable the Great Commission is to us who are saved. Now the Great Commission is the most important work on the planet. And the Lord has entrusted it into our hands. 1 Thessalonians 2, 4, But as we are allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts. Think about this, he could have used all kinds of methods, other methods than just the church to get the gospel out because he's God, he can do anything. If he wanted to, he could have put the gospel message in the beak of every little songbird and let him land on treetops and tree limbs and sing the gospel. If he wanted to, he could have put the gospel message in the heart of every little raindrop and let it fall down and bust open and men could pick it up and read, For God so loved the world. If he wanted to, he could have put and painted it up in the sky there and we could look up into the sky and read John 3, 16. But that's not what He did. He entrusted it into our hands. So it's entrusted. It's a precious thing that God has given us. More precious than all the jewels and rubies in all the world. Because it's the only thing on planet earth that can redeem a soul. and that is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, 19, To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciled the world unto himself, not impugning their transgression unto us, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now we are ambassadors of Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's name, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now in showing you the importance of the Great Commission, I pray that somehow it might inspire you to be involved. If you're already involved, maybe it will inspire you to be more involved. Now you can know if a project is important or not by considering three things. Number one, by considering who is contributing to it. If great people are making a contribution to a program, then you must say it must be a very important project because all these great important people in the world are involved in it. And then you can know if it's great or not by considering what has been contributed. I mean, what if they contributed billions of dollars and all the equipment that you could ever imagine? You see, it must be awful important for these people, as important as they are, they have come to our town and here they are, they are putting all this money and equipment and money and hiring people by the thousands. It must be a very important project. But then you can consider how important it is by how long it's been going on. What if they came here to this town and they set up shop here? I mean, the kings, the princes, the prime ministers, the queens, the presidents, and all of them came here and put all of that equipment, work, and money into it, and yet they never left. They kept staying right here in this little town in Tennessee. You'd probably say, boy, it must be a very important program for them to come here, to put all that they put in it, and never have left and kept staying right here. Amen. And so it would be a very important program. But have you ever thought about who has contributed to the Great Commission? I mean, most of the time when we think of the Great Commission, who's contributed to it, we think about men. We think about Adonai Judson, who was in Burma. What a great man of God he was. You know I read where it said he was there 8 years with not one convert but he stayed with it and people started getting saved and he had great revivals there in Burma. I think about David Livingston and his great exploits in Africa when he died they sent his body back and kept his heart there in Africa. I think about Jim Elliott in Ecuador who gave his life preaching to the heathen. Went there and they executed him, Nate Saint, and all of those who were with him. I think about David Brainerd and his great ministry among the Indians. I think about Hudson Taylor over there in China. All the years he spent there. Jonathan Goforth as he went to China also to preach the gospel of Jesus. I heard about George Bueller, that great man of God over in England who fed thousands and thousands of orphans over there. And I think about William Carey, I think about him in India all those years, a father of modern day missions, William Carey. What a great man of God. And when we think about missions, we think about these people. But there is one greater than all of these, all of them put together. He's done much more than all of them. You say, who is that? That's God the Trinity. Our Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. When we think of the Great Commission, we think of what men have done, and sometimes we overlook what God himself has done. Look what he's contributed, look what he has contributed, and look how long the contribution has been going on. For over 6,000 years he's been, and even before the world began, he began to work on the plan of the Great Commission that people could be saved when they was in sin, amen. He's worked on it then, he's working on it today, he'll work on it tomorrow, and he'll continue to work on it to the consummation of all things, and there'll be no need to preach the gospel any longer, amen. So I wanna show you briefly, what God the Father contributed, what God the Son contributed, and what God the Holy Ghost contributed, then I'll ask you, do you think it's important enough, after seeing what they contributed, for you to say, you know what, I think I'm gonna make my contributions also, amen. Think about the contributions of God the Father. The first thing He contributed was Hisself. I think about Genesis, that's the book of beginnings, that's the book of start-ups when everything started up and Adam sinned and Eve sinned and they went and put sowed fig leaves and went and hid in the thickets and by their location they were saying we have sinned against God and here's God coming out of His marvelous love and he had two lamb skins, and he had slain the blood and clothed them, giving us the first message on the blood, the first message on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the first message on redeeming sinners to himself. Amen. So the first thing that he contributed is he contributed his self to it. Amen. He brought the first message of reconciliation to mankind. Then not only did he give his self, but he gave his state. Think about that. In Genesis chapter 12, God called Abraham out of the Ur of the Chaldees on the border of Kuwait and Iraq. And God told Abraham, I'm going to make you a great nation and by your seed every nation of the earth shall be blessed. God started a nation through the seed of Abraham. Why did he found that nation? Because he wanted a nation through which he could work on his world. Mission work did not start in the New Testament, it started in the Old Testament with God going to Adam. But the Great Commission changed in the New Testament. Mark 16, 15, he didn't say, go ye into all the nation and preach the gospel, he said, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel, amen. And so the first thing God did for the help of the Great Commission, he established this, gave himself. The second thing he established and gave his state, Israel. And he would use Israel to work on his world. He promised Abraham through that seed would bless all nations. And they have, haven't they? Amen, think about that. Why did he promise Israel? It would always be around so he could always have a nation through which he could work on the world. I think about Israel. People don't like the Jew. I love the Jew. I pray for the priests of Jerusalem. I pray that not Yahu and all the Jews, the IDF would just beat the devil out of all those Muslims over there. I really do. It's amazing to me how they've shot over 8,000 missiles and only one or two has even hit anywhere. They're the most brilliant. We wouldn't have an atom bomb if it wasn't for a Jew. Einstein was a Jew. Hey, if you got a headache like a Jew, don't take an aspirin because Bayer was a Jew. I love the Jew. They're the smartest people that's ever been on the face of this earth is those Jews. Amen. Praise God. So why did he give them the law? Because so they could be a clean nation and know what God expected out of them. They was going to represent a holy God on this earth. They needed to be a holy people. And so God gave them the law so that they could go by that. Amen. So why did God give the prophets? Why did he give them the prophets? So he could keep them pure. So when they would get out of sorts with God, get away from God, he would send a fiery prophet and he would stick his finger in the face of that nation, that king in that nation and tell them to repent and get right with God, amen. We got to be right with God. We got to be pure because we're a holy people. We're a royal priesthood, a holy people, singing praise unto God, representing Him on this earth. And we're supposed to be clean when we do that. I had a good friend of mine. He passed away in 2004. We were best friends for about 20 years, and he was a preacher. And he was telling me this story one day. He owned a Goose Creek radiator shop in Goose Creek, South Carolina, and I go visit him a lot. and before he was called to preach and all. And he had a next-door neighbor that just hated him because he was a Christian. He said he tried to reach him, he said the man cussed him out, didn't want nothing to do with him. He said, we'd go weeks sometimes and I wouldn't see him hardly and he didn't want me to talk to him. He said, but one day I was outside and he came out and we just happened to bump right into each other and he said, I was, I was, I was confronted, I was to confront him with a gospel again. God told me right then to talk to him about the Lord. And I forgot the man's name. He said, Sir, I want to tell you about Jesus. The man said, you just wait a minute. I'll be right back. He went inside. He came out and had a piece of paper. And on that piece of paper, he had a list of good things and a list of bad things. He said, let me see if you're worthy to tell me about the Lord. He said, I got a list of what you're doing good around here and what you're doing bad around here. That man had been watching. He said, thank God the good list was longer than the bad list. He said, but he had a few things on the bad list. He said, I went off and passed at the church and I came back to see somebody sick in town. He was in the hospital and I went to the hospital to visit this man that was sick that I went to visit and he said, I looked up and I heard somebody saying, the guy was saying, Reverend Humphreys, Reverend Humphreys. He said, I looked, he said, it was this guy that used to be my neighbor and he was in a wheelchair. And he came up to me and he said, Reverend Humphreys, that's what he called him. And he said, he said, I said, I saw you and I want to thank the Lord. He said, because you have given my life to Jesus, I'm dying. I'm not going to get out of this hospital. He said, but I'm going to heaven because you live next door to me and you told me about Jesus and I watched your life and I thought you was worthy to tell me. I saw a life change. God changed your life. Thank the Lord, that's the way we gotta live, amen. Christian means Christ-like. If we claim to be Christians, we need to be like Christ. The foundation of God, standing sure, having the seal of the Lord, knoweth them that are His, that everyone that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. First Thessalonians 5, 22, sustained from all appearance of evil. Not just sustained from evil, but if it appears evil. Y'all know Brother Jeff, I got a little story about him. And he used to work for the pirate company. He was one of the supervisors that kind of organized all the line crews. And his boss wanted him to go out and eat lunch with him. And so his boss had his wife with him, and Jeff was by himself. And they went and sat down in the restaurant, started eating, and his boss had to go to the restroom. So it left him and that man's wife at that table. And he says, somebody saw them. and spread a rumor on him that he was running around with another woman. It appeared that way. He said, I never in the world thought that would ever happen. But I tell you, I tell you, it's so important that we don't appear to have done evil. Not only not done it, but don't even appear to it. I heard about a preacher one time years ago, you know how you put a little Varsaw in a can and wash your parts in it. He said, I had a beer can and cut the top out of it and I put it up on my hood and I had Varsaw and I dipped my nuts and bolts in it. And somebody saw that and they went around telling, hey, I saw the preacher, he's drinking beer down there while he's working on that car. Lord help us, we've got to be clean. That's why it's important that we don't smoke and drink and cuss and fight and be hot-headed and bitter and speak evil and have a loose tongue and be hateful and arrogant and mean and dishonest and pay our bills and a thousand other things. So when I got saved in 1977, I smoked like a smokestack. I smoked up to three, sometimes four packs a day. I'm telling you, 20-something years old, that was terrible. And I got saved, and I was hooked on them things. That nicotine is so addictive. And so I got saved, I started going to church, and see, I was a Lutheran before that, and I used to light my pastor's cigarette sometimes and come out the pulpit. I had no idea it was wrong to drink and smoke when I got saved. You know, I figured it was wrong to get drunk, that's what most Catholics, I was a Lutheran. And so I would smoke, and I started going, visiting over to the Independent Baptist Church, all I ever knew was Lutheran Church. I didn't go there much, but I went some. And so, that preacher get to preaching and said, God don't want you to smoke. If God wanted you to smoke, he'd have put a smokestack in your head when you was born, boy. You know, I never got mad at the preacher. I was saved. I knew I was wrong. And I wanted to quit. And I'd quit. I'd throw it away. I'd pick it up and start it again. I'd pick, throw it away. I'd pick it up and start it again. But I remember I was at the fire station one night. I went out in the night air to enjoy me a nice cigarette. And I was out there smoking, and I saw my captain, Captain Dangerfield, my supervisor, walked out back of the fire station where I was at. And I said, I'm a witness to him. This is going to be a great opportunity, just me and him. And he walked close by. I said, Captain, I'd like to share something with you about Jesus. And he looked at my cigarette, and he went, yeah, sure. And he walked off. And the Holy Spirit said, he's going to burn in hell. He's going to go to hell over your cigarette. And so I threw it down that day and I never picked up another one, praise the Lord. And so we got to be clean. And then so God gave his self, he gave his state, but here it is, he gave his son. Praise God. You see, this project is so important that you gotta give your best to it. God set that example in that he gave his very best for it. He gave His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. And He gave Him that He might die on a rugged cross. He gave His Son willingly to the work of the Great Commission, because without Him, it would be a complete failure. It would be worth absolutely nothing. But before the foundation of the world, He had already set in motion His plan for the Great Commission, and His Son was the center, most focal point of the whole thing, because without Him, nothing would work. And He gave His Son, the Lord Jesus. Think about that. He called out Israel and gave it to the Great Commission. Jesus must become a man and also be given to the Great Commission. 1 John 2, 1 and 2, My little children, these things I write you, sin not, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. world. In 1 Peter 3, 18, For Christ hath also once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Bob said in Hebrews 2, 9, But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angel for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. And so he gave his son. He gave the best that he had. He wanted it to be a complete success, but nothing was more precious to give to that project than his son. So let me ask you, when you think that God gave his nation, gave himself, gave his state, gave his son, how can you and I say, I'll not be involved? When I think about all he gave, I'll not be involved. I'll not go, I'll not give, I'll not even be saved. I'll not be a soul winner. I'm not gonna do anything. It's not all that important to me. How can we say it's not all important when we think about all that God sacrificed on our behalf? You and I must know that the Great Commission is the most important work we could ever get involved in, and God believes it's a great work, and every one of us should agree with God and say, yes, God, it's the greatest work of all. There's some here probably that's never made a contribution to the Great Commission. I'm not talking about money only as I said this morning. That's the least thing. Never giving money, prayers, children, time, life. Just kind of lazy like when it comes to the Great Commission and the things of God and being a witness and living right so that people can see your changed life. You're not making a contribution. And so God the Father, that's what he gave. Let me give you something God the Son gave. God the Father gave and so now God the Son is going to make His contribution. What did He do? What did He give? Number one, He gave His blood. Hebrews 10, verse 4 says it's not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. It could cover sin for a spell, have to be done again and again and again and again. And before Jesus came, that's what it was, but Jesus came, gave Hisself on the cross. Why did He do that? Because of Hebrews 9, 22, and almost all things are by the law purged with blood. And without shedding of blood, there is no remission. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Colossians 1, having made peace by the blood of the cross by Him, to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him I say, whether it be things in earth or things in heaven. Jesus came, lived 33 and a half years. They lied about Him. They mocked Him. They scorned Him. They tried Him unjustly and hung Him on an old rugged cross. And God put the sins of the world in His Son, the Lord Jesus, who His own self bare our sins in His own body on a tree, that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes we're healed. They took him off the cross, they buried him, he rose again, Jesus gave his blood so you and I could be saved. If Jesus would think it's that important that he go through all that torment, misery, and pain, and shed his blood, how can you sit there and not respond to it? Hell must be awful bad for God. Send the Son and Jesus to willingly lay down his life for our sins. How can we not carry the message? How can we not go soul winning? How can we not be a witness? How can we not be clean? How can we not be faithful to God and this church and our brethren? I think it's not all that important when we think about God gave his self, gave his state, and gave his son, and then Jesus turned around and he gave his blood. Let me give you something else he gave. He contributed his blood, but he contributed his body. The body is the church. What is the church? Let me give you a definition I've kind of come up with. I like it. You can add to it if you want to. The local assembly is a group of people in any location or community. that has been born again by the Spirit of God, scripturally baptized by immersion, and have band together as a group of believers to do three basic things. Number one, to worship Jesus Christ both in spirit and truth. Number two, to practice and preach the complete message of Jesus Christ. And then band together to send the gospel to the ends of the world. That's the basic thing about the church. And he is the head of the church. And being the head of the church, he's got the right to give the instructions. 1 Corinthians 6, 19. So he has the right to tell us what to do. He has the right to direct us. I believe personally, I believe Jesus was the first pastor of the first church on earth. He came and he founded the first church on earth. Let me say, he didn't come and found the Boy Scouts. He didn't found the union. He didn't found the masons. He didn't found some business, some corporation. He founded the church. He joined the church. He's the head of the church. He died for the church. He shed his blood for the church. He loved the church. He's coming back for the church. And he called his church his body because he was leaving an organism on this earth through which he could use to work his will. on the world and try to reach them for Christ. Jesus, what is your great desire? My great desire is for the church to go into all the world and preach the gospel. That's my great desire. Before he went back to heaven, he said, go into all the world. He was giving the church a great commission. That is the major assignment of this church and every church, is to preach the gospel. So he gave his blood, he gave his body, and then let me say this, he gave his bride. Now we know that is the body of Christ, that is the church, but when he called it the bride, there was a specific reason for that. The bride is the chief object of his affection. He gave the bride to the Great Commission. He loved the church the most. And because he loves it the most, he wasn't gonna give it some minuscule job that didn't mean anything. No, he gave his bride to the greatest work that he knows anything about, to the work of the Great Commission. My wife, we've been married, November the 4th will be 57 years, me and my wife been married. And we got married November the 4th, 1967. Married in a Lutheran church on Sullivan's Island in South Carolina. And I remember the day I got married, boy, we're looking forward to that marriage. And I had my Army uniform, you know, we was only 17, I was already in the Army. I was in infantry and now we're getting married and I was in my Army uniform that day. And I was up there with the best man up front. And all of a sudden, they played the wedding march. The people were sitting there. And I turned around, and I look up to the front of the church, and they played. And right around the corner, when she started playing that wedding march, my wife and her daddy turned that corner. I looked back there, and I saw her dressed in beauty. I hadn't seen her all day. You know, that's tradition. I hadn't seen her in that dress. And I looked back there. He was playing that Here Comes the Bride. Praise God, what a wonderful, wonderful tune. And she was walking real slow down the aisle, that train falling behind her. And I tell you, when I put my eyes on her, I didn't see her father no more. I didn't see anybody sitting in the congregation. All I had was my eyes focused on the most precious, beautiful, wonderful person on earth as far as I was concerned. And I tell you, we got at that altar and we made our vows and said, I will, and praise God, we've been living for 57 years right now. And you think, hey, that was the chief object of my affection. You think that I would just put my wife in some minuscule, silly job? No, I put her in the greatest job she could ever know. I put her in my service. Cleaning my house. Cooking my food. Amen. Praise the Lord. I got a good wife. I was reading Proverbs. I was studying with the men on Proverbs the other day. It's better to live on a rooftop than in a house with a brawling woman in a white house. Verse 9, verse 19, it's better to live in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman. Amen. I think about this man, he wanted to go to the Super Bowl, right? He'd been wanting to for years. He finally got enough money to go to the Super Bowl. Finally got enough money, and he got up there, but they put him in a nosebleed seat all the way to the very top, and everything looked like miniature ants running around. He said, and the game started, and he looked way down there by the field, and there was a man sitting there with an empty seat. He said, man, I'd like to sit in that seat. Nobody's sitting there. So about midway through the first quarter, he went down there and said, sir, I've noticed that the seat is empty. He said, yes, sir. He said, me and my wife, we've come to every Super Bowl for 50-something years, and my wife died, and she can't be with me. And he said, well, sir, I was looking at it. He said, you couldn't bring nobody else with you, your friend, a family member? I said, I was going to do that and ask them, but they decided they'd rather go to the funeral. He wasn't going to miss no Super Bowl. He must have been living in a white house with a brawling woman. Amen. But that's the chief object of his affection. She's the chief object of my affection. The Lord put us in the greatest work that we could know anything about. He gave us the work of the Great Commission. Most Christians don't have any, what the main purpose of the church is. If they do know, they aren't doing anything about it, or maybe the pastor weak on it, or don't keep it before the people. I don't know. Therefore, many Christians don't do anything. They don't win souls, they don't give money, they're not faithful. It's as if people are saying to God, missions might be a big thing to you, Jesus, but it certainly ain't a big thing to me. Many people come to church and do little to help the direction of the church. They just come. They seem like they just take up space on a pew. That's simple. Think about that verse, 1 Corinthians 15, 34, where some have not the righteousness of God, I speak this to your shame." You know what he was saying there? He said, get out of your sleep, you lazy rascal, and start doing right, because the world is going to hell, and your neighborhood don't know anything about God, they have no knowledge about God, and they're lost, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself, so get out of that bed, and go give some knowledge about Christ to somebody, and quit being so lazy. That's what he was saying. And that's what needs to be said to a lot of our churches. Maybe somebody here, you're being lazy, you're just asleep in the world, and the world's going to hell, and so God wants to say, lazy Christian, get up out of your pew, get concerned for the world, and go tell people who don't know about Jesus, because if you don't, you'll be shamed when you stand before me someday. Look to yourself and you'll lose not those things that you wrought. That's what the Bible says. Amen. And not be ashamed of him for appearing. You know a lot of preachers they get somewhat discouraged in the ministry. And I think it's a lot of times because people, they preach to them, they just will not listen. They just, thank God for the many that do and it's a real joy to the preacher. But there's some that he just, it just seems like he can't get a hold of. And it just discourages them. They're just, they're just taking up space. And they're not listening. They won't follow the directions. And the preacher gets somewhat discouraged. They're not helping the direction of the church. And it seems like the pastor feels like he's trying to pull the whole train by himself. I remember when my kids were real small, my daughter would be 55 soon and my son would be 54 and back you didn't have to have seatbelts way back then when they were young like in the early 70s. And what we would do is we had a car seat with hooks so we'd hook it over the seat and had a beeper horn and a little steering wheel. We'd sit them in that thing right there and boy they'd get them right out of our hair while we're driving down the road. And they'll be riding down the hole. They're just thinking they're helping and driving the car. They go, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, and put their people right in it and they just sit there, look preacher, I'm driving preacher, beep, beep, beep, look a two hands preacher, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. They're not helping the direction of the church whatsoever. God have mercy. So let me give you the third one real quick. So God the Father, he's got this plan before the foundation of the world. And he got involved immediately and contributed to it. Jesus Christ has got involved and he's contributing to it. He's gave his blood, his body, his bride. And then the Holy Spirit, it can't be successful without him either. They all three have got to share in this great event of winning people to God. Think about this, the Holy Spirit, he gave presents, he gave gifts. I think about what the Holy Spirit does to make all this stuff work together. Some people have got talents. They play piano. They play mandolins. They play banjos and all of those different things. Some sing. They preach. They teach. They help others. They're involved in governments and the church and helps. They're gifts that God has given every church, every needed thing that your church has a need of, He gives it to you. But what are the gifts given for? Here's what some people think. They say some say he's given those talents and gifts so I can go enjoy church more. Well that's not necessarily true. A good song should encourage you to go into all the world. You see, God didn't give these young people talent so you could just come in here and just enjoy their playing and say, woo! Oh boy, they're just so talented. No, that's not why God did that to the church. He gave that to the church so you could hear them lifting up and glorifying Jesus and the Holy Ghost can speak to your heart and inspire you to do a better job in the work of the Great Commission as a viable church member here at this church. That's why the Holy Ghost did that. Now you know what the Trinity has contributed to the Great Commission, what should you contribute? Some here need to give you life, you need to give you money, you need to give your children to the Lord. We should give our most to what God gave His most to. God hasn't called everybody to be a missionary, but I believe He's called everybody to struggle with it on whether or not He wants them to be a missionary. Are you making a contribution to soul winning? Are you involved in missions here and worldwide? If the Trinity did, shouldn't you? If you're not saved here today, they made a great contribution to get you saved, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. If you're here lost and you go to hell, you'll go after they've done all of that to help you get saved. Are you saved today? Here, I get this little picture of eternity. This is not the way it happened, but I think about, here's the Trinity, the great Trinity before the world ever began. God the Father steps out on the edge of eternity and says, I'm gonna create a earth and there's gonna be a man that's gonna sin, him and his wife. And I'm gonna make my contributions right now before the world ever begins. And he steps out on the end of eternity and said, I'm gonna give myself. I'm gonna create a state called Israel. then I'm gonna give my son. And then God the Son steps out on the edge of eternity and says, it must be a success. The greatest thing that we as God has ever done will be this. It's got to be a great success. I'm willing to give my blood, my body, my bride. And God the Holy Ghost stands up on the edge of eternity and says, with my involvement in this, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give gifts I'm going to give talents. I'm going to give abilities. I'm going to call people. I'm going to convict them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. I'm going to do all of those things and mixing in all three, mixing it all together makes a complete contribution to world evangelism. And I say if they did all of that, to get people saved and reach this world. How can you and I ever sit to the side and just let everybody else do it and not put our hands and get involved in it also? Let's pray. Our Father in Jesus' name, Lord, as always, thank you for the message that you gave us to preach today. And Lord, thank you for the contributions you made. If somebody's here lost, all of that, all of that's been contributed for them to be saved. If they was the only person ever born in this world, you did all of that just for them. I pray they'd come today and give their life to Jesus and get saved. No need to die and go to a devil's hell when they can go to a God's heaven. If they miss heaven, they've missed it all. All the great preparation for us when we get there. It'd be awful to see somebody miss it. Lord, for the Christian that's here today, Lord, may they say, yes, I'll make my contributions. Great men of God and women of God has made them before me and I'm gonna make them today. It's my turn to step up, especially when I see all that my great God has done and give. Lord, I'm gonna give and I'm gonna support through my local church. Lord, please bless that now. The heads of our eyes are closed, nobody looking around, say, Preacher, God has spoke to my heart today, all day today, we heard something great.