You're going to have to listen fast. The pastor said it's supposed to be done at seven, so that gives me three minutes. Well, he'll cut me a little slack, I think. I've had a lot of fun. I've enjoyed it. This is my second suit. And I've never in my ministry had anybody buy two suits and shirts and belt and shoes. And I just want to thank you and your pastor for your generosity. I need all the help I can get. And so I'm thankful. You know, you can't do with much from here on up. So you got to dress the best you can. There was a young lady this morning that gave me a poem. It's called, That's My God. If you're here tonight, where are you? Is there a little girl here tonight? Anybody? Come on up here, hon. I ain't gonna embarrass you. I just want you to know I appreciate that. And what's your name? What is it again? Carolee. Carolee? Carolee. Carolee. Give me your hand. Now turn it over. There's something for you. Let's have a prayer for her. Lord, we thank for Carolee that she wants to live for you and serve you. We pray that you'd bless her, help her grow in you, and do things mightily for you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm not usually much for poems, but I do read them and write them occasionally. I have a poem for you I want to read. I looked upon a farm one day that once I used to own. The barn had fallen to the ground. The fields were overgrown. The house in which my children grew, where we lived for many years, I turned to see it broken down, brushed away the tears. I looked upon my soul one day to find it too had grown, with thorns and nettles everywhere the seeds neglect had sown. The years had passed while I had cared for things of lesser worth. The things of heaven I let go, when minding things of earth. To Christ I turned with bitter tears, and cried, O Lord, forgive. I haven't much time left for Thee, not many years to live. The wasted years forever gone, the days I can't recall. If I could live those days again, I'd make Him Lord of all. He's God. Make Him Lord of your life. You'll never be sorry in eternity. I've never been with any dying saint that said they were sorry that they served Jesus. But I've met a lot of them that said they wished they would have. I want to encourage you tonight to, I wanted to take just a minute to thank the children and all the workers. That was wonderful. You know, I didn't have a burden for Argentina until my children went there. You know, it becomes a little more personal, doesn't it? And the singing, everything, it was wonderful. I've looked forward to this for a long time. the last night and I have to hurry because we're having dessert afterwards. Keep our priorities straight. Turn to Luke 19 if you would. Luke chapter 19. We talked on Thursday and Friday about how God has blessed us and how we should give to our power and beyond our power because God has been so good to us. We should honor him with our tithes and missions. There are five parts, I believe, to the Great Commission found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts, and each part is a little bit different, and together they make the whole, and I want us to consider that tonight. And here in Luke 19.10, we see the purpose and the priority of Jesus, and if He is our Lord of all, if He is our Master, then we're gonna wanna make His priorities our priorities. And we see here in Luke 19.10, for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Could you say that with me, Luke 19.10, here we go. For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. The purpose of Jesus coming wasn't just to be a great teacher. or a healer. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. How can we do that? How can we go into all the world and preach the gospel? How can we seek and to save that which is lost, not only here, but around the world? And that's what the Great Commission is about. We see in Acts chapter 13, the church, after they prayed and fasted, they sent out Paul and Silas. And Barnabas, I think it was, but Barnabas and Paul. And they went out preaching the gospel. And you know, as a church body, support missionaries, God blesses the church. And be an aggressive local church that is always after souls. Who have you been praying for that is lost? Who are you burdened for? As we heard this morning from Romans chapter 11 or 10, verse 1 says, my heart's desire and prayer to God is that Israel might be saved. Are you praying for somebody to be saved? Ask God to bring somebody across your path this week that you might be a witness. A testimony. You can give your testimony. People won't always receive a tract. They might not let you take the Bible, but they will listen to what the Lord has done for you. And in giving your testimony, give the gospel of how that you were lost. how that Jesus died for you and was buried again, and how that you prayed and received Christ as your Savior. And people will hear that. I was out knocking on some doors of a Sunday school class. For years I talked 7th and 8th grade boys, and I was knocking on the door and nobody was home. And it's been my practice for years, if you go to a house and nobody's home, go to the neighbor. Go the one across. I looked across and I turned around and there was a light from my house that was shining right on me. And I went over to that house and knocked on the door, and Mike and Gladys Gibson invited me in. I took the Bible and showed them how they could be saved, and they both trusted Christ as their Savior. And the next year, they never missed a service, they were always there early, and they read the Bible together all the way through that year. Well, at the end of that year, Gladys died. And Mike was available all the time to go out sowing with me. You know, I went out sowing sometimes 25 hours a week as assistant pastor, and I always needed, it's always great to have somebody with you, and Mike would go, and we'd go visit people, and he was up in his 80s, you know, and he'd just go for the Lord. And it was so exciting, glad that he got saved. Now, just thinking about people that you're going to see in heaven again. You don't want to go to heaven empty-handed. You want to be in heaven, and you'd help being a part of reaching souls. And given the missions, you have a part for that, but you need to be a missionary also. People that are without Christ have a Christ-less eternity. People that don't know the Lord Jesus Christ will spend eternity in the lake of fire. What a thrill it is to have a part of God's Word. Turn with me, if you would, to Matthew 28, and let's look quickly at the five parts that make a whole of the promises of the Great Commission. The first promise we see here is in Matthew. Chapter number 28. Let's begin reading in verse 9, if you would. 28, 9. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail! And they came and held him by the feet and worshipped him. You know, if they were holding him by the feet, they weren't standing up. They were kneeling down. and kneel down and have a time of worship, be a true worshiper of Jesus Christ. Now, if you drop down to verse 17, and when they saw him, they worshiped him. We need to worship him and have his blessings, so we'll have the energy and the power to go and to reach out to those that are lost. Now, notice what he says. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things which I have commanded you. Now listen to the last part. And lo! I am with you always. One of the blessings of keeping the Great Commission is the blessing of having His presence. He's promised, lo, I'm with you always, that promise of the presence of God. There's many verses, Hebrews 13, five, it says, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, the promise of His presence. As we think of heaven and you read Revelation 21 and Revelation 22, we stand before the Lord and we'll receive some rewards. We want to have something to lay at His feet. We want to have a crown to cast at Him and say, Thou art worthy, O Lord. God is worthy. Let's be a witness. And we have the promise of His presence as we go and witness for Him. Turn with me to Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16, we see the second part of the Great Commission. And he says here in 16 and 15, let's start there, 16 and 15, and he said unto them, Go ye into all the world. and preach the gospel to every creature. I don't know if you get this, pastor. I had a lady call the other day and says, would you tell your people to stop harassing me? And I said, ma'am, our people don't harass anybody. I said, they're just trying to do what the Bible commands them to do, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I said, did they break your window? Oh no, she said it. Did they kick in the front door? No. Well, how did they harass you? You know, and talked to her for a little bit, and she got mad and hung up. But, you know, the last thing people, you know, if that's the worst problem that you have, that somebody's concerned enough to tell you about Jesus. You know, I mean, she needed it. She obviously needs the Lord. And we need to go with the gospel. Now look at the last part here. Preach the gospel to every creature. Now notice what Jesus says, verse 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Now don't just stop there. You gotta read the whole verse. But he that believeth not shall be damned. I've sometimes irritated people. Well, they say, well, I don't believe the Bible. Yeah, but Jesus said, he that believeth not shall be damned. They said, well, I'm not a church goer. They'll make some other excuse. They'll say, yep, but Jesus said, he that believeth not shall be damned. And you know, I have to say that five or six times to people. They say, would you stop saying that? Well, the Bible says, he that believeth not shall be damned. And so we're concerned for your soul. And if you reject Christ, you'll be damned. I don't know about you to be damned, to be cursed, to go to hell, to be separated from God. That's where the lost are going to go. And Jesus said, He that believeth not shall be damned. If you're here tonight and you've never put your faith and trust in Christ, if you've never repented of your sin and asked Jesus to save you, Jesus said, He that believeth not shall be damned. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. He wants you to be saved. Now notice it says in verse 17, These signs shall follow them that believe in my name, and they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, or glossa, or language, they shall take up serpents, I'm not a snake handler. And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. I want you to think about the promise of his provision or the promise of his protection. God's promise to be with us and God's promise to protect us. in our troubles. Look with me, if you would, back to Matthew 10, in verse 1. As Jesus is sending out the disciples, he said, don't take anything with you. Don't take any gold or silver or brass in your pocket, in your purse. Matthew 10, verse 1. And when he had called him, his 12 disciples, he gave them power. against unclean spirits to cast them out and heal all manner of sick and all manner of disease. And let me say, you don't have to read too far in the New Testament. You come to devils and demons. You know, let me say to you, there are fallen angels. There are evil spirits that, and that's real. And that's why as a Christian, we need to stay away from that kind of thing. Now, if you read down in verse number, let's see. I think I wanted to read about verse 15, but let's look. He says, start in verse 8. Heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead, cast out devils. Freely ye have received, freely give. Provide neither gold, silver, nor brass, and your purse, don't take any with you, for the laborer is worthy of his meat. And he's saying here that we need to trust God to provide for us. Don't worry about how you're gonna make it. When we went to Steinbeck, we didn't have all that we needed, but God provided. And some of the missionaries have shared how that God met their needs. If you're trying to do what God wants you to do, and you're trying to seek and save with the lost, God's presence will be with you, and His presence and protection and provision will also help you along the way. It shall not hurt them, it says. It shall not hurt them. 1 John 4, verse 4 says, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Now to go to the book of Luke, we'll see the third part of the Great Commission, Luke 24 and verse number 24. And this is the promise of His person, the promise of His work and His working with us. 24 and verse 24, their eyes were opened. And they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight. Then look over to verse 45. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scripture. You know, that's a good prayer, like Psalms 119, verse 18. Open my eyes, Lord, that I might behold wondrous things from thy word. He opened their eyes, that they might understand the scriptures. And thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer. How many of you know what behooved means? How many of you have used the word behooved? You know, it's one of those words most of us don't use. But what it says here, it was necessary for Christ to suffer. Why was it necessary for Him to suffer? So that He could die for our sins, so that we could be saved. The Bible says it was necessary for Christ to suffer, behoove Christ to suffer. Then he says, and that repentance and remissions of sin should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. The Bible says it was necessary for Christians to speak, to preach, to share their testimony, to give out a gospel tract, to tell people how they can be saved. Look at the last part of verse 47. beginning at Jerusalem. It behooved the church to sin because Jesus suffered and died, was buried and rose again. The promise of his person, his personal triumph over death, hell and the grave. John Scott said Christianity is the very essence of the Resurrection religion, the essence of Christianity is a resurrection. We read in Romans 10 verse 9, that if thou should confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And so I have a friend and they have a recording and I call and you get an answer machine and they say something like, We trust that you know the Lord, that He died for your sins. But that's all they say. You know, Jesus didn't just die for our sins. He's still not hanging on the cross, but He rose victorious over death, hell, and the grave. And so, the resurrection of Christ, the promise of His personal triumph, And then we have our personal triumph over sin. We can be victorious because he was victorious. Turn to 1 John chapter 5, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1 John chapter 5, Believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God, and every one that loveth him, that begetteth loveth him also, that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous, for whosoever is born of God overcometh. the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Faith is the victory we sing about. And who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. So, we see our personal triumph because Jesus triumphed. Our fourth book, we see not only his presence, provision, protection, his personal work in our lives, but John chapter 20, we see another promise, the promise of his peace. You know, the Bible says, there is no peace, saith my God to the wicked, no peace, the wicked have no peace, but in John chapter 20 and verse number 21, the scriptures say there, Then Jesus said to them again. We should read verse 19 to see the first time. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst of them and said unto them, peace. Beyond to you aren't you glad as a Christian you can have peace not only peace with God from Romans 5 1 but the peace of God from Philippians, you know, God wants us to be a people of peace when the Holy Spirit comes in you have love joy and and to have God's peace. The power of the promise of peace. Peace. Peace comes with surrender. We surrender to the Lord. That's with it. All to Jesus I surrender. They were singing about it a little bit. Have you surrendered to the Lord? Have you surrendered all to Him? You know, when I was a teenager, everything to me was flying. Everything was flying airplanes. I just loved to fly airplanes, and I had several uncles that had planes, and my dad had a plane, and anytime somebody's going up, I was trying to bum a ride, you know, to go with them, and they, a lot of times, let me fly. My Uncle LC, he had an airplane, and he would let me fly down to Indiana, and they had a custom brand new van there, he was a Ford dealer, and I'd pick up, fly down and then drive that new van back. And I enjoyed both of them, you know, but I got to fly. And when I became a teenager, and got a letter from, Laterno College from Delta Airlines offering me to be trained and go to work with Delta Airlines, you know, that was, wow. I could fly one of them big jets, you know. But God reminded me of the promise that I had made to serve him. The day I got saved, I surrendered to serve him. So I was fearful of giving up, Flying, because I miss it so. But you know, anything you give to God, you're not going to miss. Listen to me. Anything you give to God. If you give some time to the Lord, God's going to add that time to your life. You spend some time in God's Word in the morning, God will add that time. to you during the day. God, through His wisdom, will bless you, and anything you give to God, He will repay. That's a guarantee from God's Word. Give, and it shall be given unto you. We looked at the other night. Now, as soon as I went to Bible college and did what God wanted me to do, professors found out that I was a pilot. And they came to me and said, hey, would you fly me over here? And would you fly me over there? And I got to fly with Brother Roloff. And I got to fly a lot of great preachers. And I got to fly in Canada back in to native villages where I could, even into the Arctic Circle where I could witness. I'm just saying, I thought I lost it. I was giving up something when I gave it to the Lord. But you know, the Lord will give it right back to you. And bless you. Don't be afraid to surrender to the Lord. God's not going to force you to go to some place that you don't want to go. God doesn't force you to be saved. I don't believe in that baloney about irresistible grace. If it's irresistible grace, it isn't grace at all. A person has to open the door. God says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. He doesn't kick open the door. You have to open the door and ask him to come in and save you. And it's the same thing with your surrender. He doesn't force you to come to church, but he wants you to come because you love him. And God wants us to serve him, but we have to be willing. and He will help us along the way. I surrendered for about everything there was in Bible college. I don't know if you use it that way, but some preacher would come through, you know, and preach on something, and I'd surrender to be everything there was, you know. But I never dreamed about being a preacher. Never thought of it. You know, you don't have to be a preacher. There's some of you men that are good with your hands. You know, Brother Smith, he has that Helps Ministries, and there's other places like that. You can go help build a building for a missionary someplace. That's a wonderful thing to do. You're an electrician, you can go and help a church or somebody. You have some different skills, say, well, I'm not a preacher. There's lots of things to do for God besides preaching, you know? And if God's calling you to preach, that's great too. The promise of peace, that God will give us peace. A couple other thoughts. I'd like to read Colossians, just a few verses. Verse 12, it says, Colossians 3, 12, verse 13, Even as Christ forgave you, so do ye. And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Now, verse 15, and let the peace of God rule in your heart. Do you remember when you were lost and you were fearful if you died you'd go to hell? Can some of you remember that? Isn't it wonderful to lay your head down at night and to know if you die you're going to wake up in heaven with the Lord? I mean, there's a peace that you know that God is in control of your life. You say, well, there's famine, there's hard things coming. Well, there might be, but you know, God has always helped his people. I like what the Psalmist said, you know, I've been young and I'm old. Oh, I can say that. And he says, I haven't seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. I've never missed a meal in my life that I, unless I was fasting, you know, that I couldn't have eaten. God is always provided. Don't we have a great God? And you have the promise of His peace. We sang that song, Living by Faith. You know, that was Brother Roloff's song. He was always saying that, Living by Faith. You don't have to worry about what tomorrow will bring because we're living by faith. We're trusting God. and he's gonna provide. The last P I want you to think of, the last piece of the puzzle we find in Acts chapter number one of the Great Commission. God has commissioned his disciples. How many of you had a loved one die? Do you remember what the last thing your loved one said? You know, my sister, Cheryl, died of cancer, and the last day before she died, that evening, she died in the morning, I went through that evening and kissed her and told her I loved her, and her eyes were just opened just a little bit, and this is what she said back to me. Didn't make any noise, but she said, love you. You know, when you say goodbye to your loved one, it should be kind and loving words, because you never know if you're going to see them again. in this life. I know I'm going to see her again because she loved the Lord. I'm just trying to say to you this evening that missions is all about fulfilling the Great Commission and the last thing Jesus said before he ascended up to heaven was go ye. As the Lord has sent me, so send I you. Now here in Acts chapter 1, before the church is empowered by the Holy Spirit, we see in Acts 1 and verse 8, but ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And ye shall be witnesses unto me, both Jerusalem and in all of Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth Last piece of the puzzle here that God says he'll give us power. We need God's power How much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him we need spiritual power to be victorious in We need spiritual power to reach the lost, and by God's power, we can send out missionaries, we can support missionaries, because God will empower us with His presence, and God will empower us and bless us with provision, and His person, and His peace, and His power. 2 Peter 3, 9 says, The Lord is not slack concerning his promises, as some men count slackness, but his long-suffering to us were not willing that any should perish. That's another problem with the Calvinists. They believe God just died for the elect. Well, the Bible says God's not willing that any. The Bible says, I'll be lifted up, I'll draw all men. What's all mean? Well, all means all, and that's all it means, you know. My understanding, God wants everybody to be saved, amen? Some men count slackness, but as longsuffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish. A church paid me $150. to go talk to their deacons about free will. And a bunch of Calvinists, and G-A-R-B. And so I'm talking with the deacons, I show them every verse, even their pet verses, and all the other verses in the Bible. And one of the leading Calvinists said, well, I guess I've never thought about it that way. And I said, but it's sad that people want to twist the scriptures and tell you that God isn't for everybody getting saved. Let me say to you, you can never witness to the wrong person, because God wants everybody to be saved. Amen? And the elect are those that open the door of their heart and allow Jesus to come in. And the only time about election where you see that God has chosen is always with the Jews. God did choose Abraham. God did choose to bless the Jews. God did come through the Jews, and we owe the Jews a debt in the giving us the scripture and giving us the written word and the living word. Now, I wasn't proud. I didn't have anything about Calvinism in here tonight, but maybe you need that. If you didn't, why just throw it over to somebody else? Maybe they'll get a blessing from it. But it's power to witness the dynamite of the gospel, to go with the good news and be a witness. A witness is someone who tells what they have seen and heard. Have you witnessed how Jesus has changed people's lives? I'll close with this story. I was knocking on doors in Yorkton, and I came to Dina Fike and her husband. I just can't think of both their names, but anyway, the Fikes. And they both trusted Christ as their Savior. And the next Sunday they came to church. Now he had real long hair and he was a disc jockey. He played rock and roll music at, they were dancers or whatever. And they both had drug problems. And you know, I never said one thing to him about any of the things in their life. I just tried to love him, tried to encourage him. One Sunday they came forward and says, we gave up alcohol this morning. I never talked about alcohol. But God spoke to him about it. And it wasn't too many weeks, Cary and Dina. Cary comes in, he's got a haircut. Instead of it being like this, he's got a haircut. And one day he comes to me, now people ask. That's a good time, you know. He comes to me, he says, you know, the other day, when I was being a disc jockey and playing this music, he said, I just didn't feel right about it. And he said, I started listening to some of the words and watching as the things were going on. And he says, what was that? I said, that was the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit bringing you conviction, you know, and he got out of that. You know, we have to love people and encourage people and wait for the right opportunity, you know, when they ask you a question. It's like if you're dealing with a Jew, don't ever tell them you're a Christian. No, never do that. They think right away you're Catholic. You tell them, I'm a Baptist. And they'll say, well, what's that? Boom, you got an open door now to witness to them and tell them what. How many of you went to Israel with us? We had about 57. I know some of you went. We had a great time. But you get a burden for people when you see them. That's why we saw the ministry and the working. Open our eyes, Lord. Look upon the harvest. Missions is all about fulfilling the Great Commission. Why do we have a missions conference? Because we want to obey what God has told us to do in his last words to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Would you bow your heads with me as we pause for just a moment? Kind of stumbled around tonight and didn't do as good as I wanted to do, but I pray that something we said that the Holy Spirit would speak to your hearts. Have you surrendered all? You want to do what God wants you to do? Are you interested in souls and seeing souls saved? Are you willing to support missions, your finances? If not, why not? Why don't you ask God what he wants you to do? Lord, we pray that you'd bless in the invitation, help some folks to make some decisions for you to surrender to you. We pray if there's some here that haven't trusted you as Savior, they'd want to come and be saved.