Let us pray before we get into scripture and preaching of God's Word. Heavenly Father, Lord, what a blessing it is to celebrate Father's Day, Lord, knowing that you are our Father. You are the good Father. Give us such good gifts to your children. Lord, You're ever-present in our lives, and we ask today, Lord, that You'll be with us as we preach Your word, infallible. Lord, may it never return void. Lord, convict of sin this morning, encourage, lift us up. through your word, not our experiences, Father. It's not about the man that preaches. It's about you. It's about the message. It's about the gospel, Lord. If there's anyone here today that does not know you, Lord, I plead, I pray that you touch their hearts. Be with them. Bring them salvation, Lord. In your name, Jesus, that we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. There is a base in Tucson, Arizona called the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. It is said that this base is where old planes go to die. More than 4,000 military aircrafts are parked on the base, from B-52 bombers, these are large and massive planes, to helicopters, and all sorts of planes. Each plane designed at one point in the American history for a particular mission. Each plane parked on the Davis Mountain Air Force Base assumed their purpose or role and mission. And once that mission ended, so did their service. Although these planes are used for parts and sometimes sold to other nations, mostly they have become relics of different generations. Same as these planes and the missions they carried, All missions, whether military, political, social, have their end. There is only one mission that remains through all the years, and that is the Great Commission. So why am I bringing up these planes and their finite missions? Well, I bring it up as a reminder that unlike these plains, we the church cannot allow the Great Commission to become the old mission. The Great Commission was and still is the mission. Now this is a second part sermon on the passage of Matthew 28, verses 16 and 20. And if you recall the title of the sermon is, Go Make Disciples the Church's Mission. Go make disciples the church's mission. If you did not listen to the part one of the message, I said that the priority of the church is to make disciples. I also defined for us the mission statement of the church. Now, this is my own definition. There are better out there. There are better ones. But I defined it as such, the central mission of the church is to glorify God by the fulfillment of the Great Commission. To go out and preach the gospel of Christ and make disciples of all nations and add true worshipers to the kingdom of God. That is our mission statement. I also mentioned that there are four points or four words in total found within the passage that will help us fulfill the Great Commission. First, to fulfill the mission, we must be available. We saw that clear when the disciples ran to their master to receive his commandment. They were available. They were not idle. They were faithful with their time and resources to preach the gospel. Second, we see the word power, which describes Christ's authority by which we are sent to make disciples. Remember, beloved, it is not up to our own strength, our own human wisdom that makes us fulfill the Great Commission, but by his authority and power. And today, let us look at the other two words. that are needed to be good missionaries and heralds of Christ's mission. These words are obedience and promise. Obedience and promise. Let us read the passage. Matthew 28, verses 16 to 20. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, listen to this promise, I am with you always to the end of the age. And that is God's word. Now, verse 18, Jesus just told us that all authority and power has been given to him. All things are subjected to him. All that is on heaven and on earth, all things are subjected to his authority. Even His enemies are subjected to His majesty and dominion. This is an important concept to grasp because it is precisely what Jesus wants us to understand before we receive one of the greatest commandments the church has ever been given. Immediately after this confirmation to us that He is supreme over all things, He gives us the Great Commission, the church's mission. Verses 19 and 20. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. I love the word, therefore, that this word is present in this verse. And as you know, this is a conjunctive adverb, meaning that this word is connecting two clauses or sentences or thoughts. that the reason why we are commanded to make disciples is dependent on the authority of the one that calls you to go and make disciples. In other words, go therefore and make disciples of all nations because the king of the universe tells you to. The one who defeated death and all demonic powers commands you to be obedient to his instructions. Now we are not only to be obedient to the one who gives the command, but also the importance of the command. See that Christ said, go and make disciples. He did not say, go make disciples if you can, or if you feel up to it, or if you have the energy for it, or maybe when you have all things figured out, go make disciples. That's not what he said. Go make disciples. He gives an imperative command, a non-negotiable command, one that will spark an immediate action by the one who receives it. And what is so imperative about it? Beloved, it is so crucial that while we are sitting here today, people are perishing. Are we to sit tight and ignore our Lord's command? Are we to let people perish when we ourselves have tasted the freedom of salvation and faith that is in our Lord Jesus? Our brother Edward mentioned last week the importance of unceasing prayer and how prayer would look like if and when someone understands the gravity of spiritual things. Same could be said of this. I wonder how involved and resolute we would be if we would really understand the gravity of what is constantly around us. Spiritual warfare. Brother Edwin mentioned this passage last week and I will echo it this morning, Ephesians 6, 12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness. against the spiritual forces of evil and heavenly places. We wrestle against an enemy that is relentless in deceiving souls. What makes the church of today so uninterested in fulfilling the Great Commission? Maybe we think that the command that the Lord gave us was only for the disciples or the first church. Are not people perishing today? Has the gospel lost its power? By all means, gospel as Paul puts it in Romans 1.16, for it is the power of God unto salvation. That has not changed. So we must be obedient to our Lord's command. We are to preach the gospel to all nations, believing that this call is not only for our forefathers, but also to us, to you, and to me. Because people perish today as they did back then. Charles Spurgeon said this. Oh, I would that the church could hear the Savior addressing these words to her now. For the words of Christ are living words, not having power in them yesterday alone, but today also. The injunctions of the Savior are perpetual in their obligation. They were not binding upon merely apostles, but upon us also. And upon every Christian does this joke fall. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. We are not exempt today from the service of the first followers of the Lamb. Our marching orders are the same as theirs, and our captain requires from us obedience as prompt, as perfect as from them. or that this message, he says, may not fall upon deaf ears or be heard by uninterested souls. We obey not only to the one that has all authority but also commands an imperative warning message. People need to hear about Christ and Him crucified. That there is no salvation in other name under heaven. Only in the name of Jesus we find restitution and absolution for the guilt of our sins. That He is the slaughter lamb who took away our sins by grace through faith. He imputes the sins of those who understand how wretched and in need of a Savior they are. This can only happen when we, the church, co-labor and is obedient to our Lord's command. Now this morning, I want us to learn three things about being obedient to Christ's Great Commission command. I hope these three things will help us understand why obedience is crucial and expected to fulfill the Great Commission. These three things are, number one, obedience calls to an inclusive gospel message. Number two, obedience honors and exalts that triune God. Number three, obedience may cost you much, but it leads others to obey. Let's look at number one. Obedience calls to an inclusive gospel message. Today's society is all about inclusiveness. It demands that all people's beliefs, ideals, and philosophies be respected and be accepted. The gospel is inclusive, but not as the world is inclusive. The gospel is inclusive in that it calls all men to repentance and believe in the Son of Man. Jesus commands us in verse 19 to make disciples of all nations, meaning the church should make it a priority to send out laborers and missionaries to preach the gospel. And we know this will happen because Jesus told us in Matthew 24, 14, and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations. It has been God's heart to see people from all nations worship Him. That is His heart. Psalms 86 9, All nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. The gospel invites all men, all sorts of men, to repentance and to believe in the name of Jesus. And now we know And not all will respond kindly to the message. But we know that all types of peoples, men and women from different nations, tongues, colors, ethnic backgrounds, will one day bow down to Jesus and declare He is Lord. Now this message has been used by the church to send out missionaries to the fields, and rightly so. It is an evangelistic and missionary call. But what about being obedient to this call in our context, within our city? Now in Miami, city you live, we have a great opportunity to reach people from all nations. We don't necessarily have to go to other countries to preach. We also have an awesome opportunity to preach the gospel to all sorts of men. If we look around this congregation, we see a melting pot. Don't we? We have whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asian. We represent exactly what this city is, a community of many types of peoples. We must take the opportunity and be obedient to our Lord's call. Don't make distinction of men. Don't judge them by their social statuses, their political views, the color of their skin. Reach them all, is what the Lord is trying to tell us. Because it is in His heart that all men, all sorts of men, come to repentance. 2 Peter 3.9 says, The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, and some understand slowness. And He's talking about His second coming here. Instead, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. It is God's heart that all men come to repentance. And we might have a Calvinistic formula and argument to say that, no, that's not what Peter and Paul said. God doesn't want all men to come to repentance. I love the doctrine of election as much as the next hardcore Calvinist, but let me tell you something. Let us not forget that our Lord is a compassionate God. He says it clearly and emphatically, God desires all men to come to repentance. Not only our kindred, not only our ethnic group, or maybe the middle class. We must be obedient and preach the gospel to all nations and all sorts of men. Let us now make distinction out of men. We look down upon so many people by the way they dress, by the way they talk, or simply because of their immigration status. As if that would make them any lesser of a human being. Sometimes we discriminate when the gospel is inclusive to all sorts of people. We miss so much when we make distinctions out of man. We miss so much blessings. C.S. Lewis said this in his famous book, Mere Christianity. A proud man is always looking down on things and people. And of course, as long as you're looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. When we look down on people, we miss God's purposes for all nations. We miss such a blessing to see others come to the feet of Christ. And most importantly, we miss God's name being exalted. I hope that is the heart of us today. Number two, obedience honors and exalts God. I have one prayer, and I pray that Cornerstone Bible Church that we may have the same attitude as Christ. He was obedient to the Father in doing His will and honoring Him in obedience. And we may be obedient to God in making disciples for His glory and be compassionate for those who are perishing. Matthew 9, 35, 38 gives us a great example of Jesus' compassion And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. May we be as compassionate as our God. In verse 19, not only is Jesus instructing us to preach the gospel to all nations, but also to baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Immediately after people are converted to Christ, through the preaching of the gospel, instantly we are called to obedience. And it starts with baptism. Now we must understand that water baptism does not save the believer, but it is a commandment to be obeyed by the believer. John MacArthur expands on this. He says, the initial act of obedience to Christ after salvation is to submit to baptism as a testimony to union with him and his death, burial, and resurrection. This is why we baptize. As Paul would put it in Romans 6 verses 3 and 4, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we might walk in newness of life. And this is a precise declaration of a new life that glorifies God. That when converts are baptized, they are outwardly expressing their inward transformation. They no longer abide in sin, but rather, they abide and submit to the kingship of the triune God. It is a visible declaration of what has taken place in the inner man. It is the work of the triune God in man's salvation. Therefore, we baptize because we are now able to keep also men accountable and point them out to that moment they publicly declare their allegiance to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Understand this, beloved. Angels rejoice when men come into repentance Not because men have something within them that makes them saved, but because they serve a God who is working out the salvation of sinners. He gets all the glory, all the honor, when his church is obedient to the Great Commission. When we preach the gospel to all nations, and we baptize them in the name of the Triune God, and teach them to be strong disciples. Number three. Obedience may cost you much, but it leads others to obey. I want to make it clear. Although making disciples ought to be the priority of the church, it is by no means an easy task. Because making disciple is not a momentary task. It's a lifelong commitment to build strong disciples And so far we've seen that Christ has given us a command to preach the gospel to all nations, to baptize them, and now He takes it a step further. Teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. Christ is calling to a lifelong commitment of obedience to Him. Notice that the church is not only called to make converts, but to teach them how to obey Christ. Because ultimately, obedience is a mark of a legitimate believer. The writer of Hebrews makes the attitude of obedience almost synonymous with saving faith, saying that Jesus became to all those who obey Him, the source of eternal salvation. Hebrews 5.9. Teaching others to obey Christ is a sacrificial feat. It will take everything you have and then some. It will cost you everything because it demands from you a perpetual life of sacrifice. Not only are we to teach others to love and obey Christ through His Word primarily, but also teach them through actions. I must admit that when I've grown the most in my spiritual walk, sorry, is when someone has poured into my life and shown me how to live a godly life. Not just by teaching the Word, yes, primarily we do that. Being intentional with others. Being people's life. It may take much. We love to see when our church preaches the gospel and people come to repentance. We love the fact that people are being baptized. But when it comes to put our own responsibilities, the responsibilities ourselves to teach others, that is when we create all the excuses in the world. We become experts at making excuses. Let me tell you something, beloved. When our excuses supersede the will and purposes of our God, we have a heart issue. There's something wrong with us. Not only do we have a bunch of excuses out of our pockets, but we also become cynical and critical of those who are willing to do the job. The Great Commission is fulfilled when we are obedient to the command of our Savior, not only to make converts, but to make strong disciples that bear the image of our Lord more and more. The goal of the church is not to fill seats with converts. That's not the goal. O people that profess Christ alone, The end goal is that we teach and equip brothers and sisters for every good work and deed, that they themselves are multiplied in other disciples of Christ. Therefore, we teach the whole counsel of God, His Word, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work, 2 Timothy 3.17. Making disciple is costly. It will cost you again so much. You may end up being hurt by others in the process. You may end up hated, reviled, offended, even by those of your own flock. You may be outcasted, not deemed worthy of their friendships may have happened. And at times you will invest much in people and not receive any benefit in return. Teaching others to obey his commandment is a lonely job at times. Because there, excuse me there, because there aren't many people up to the task. And you may feel that all your efforts are in vain. Sometimes that happens. And you may feel that all your efforts go nowhere. They're empty. Let me reassure you that it isn't. Keep on the good fight. Pour into others. Get in people's lives. Be intentional about relationships. Open your house and be hospitable. Allow people in, don't stop because at the end your obedience fulfills the Great Commission and will be a great measure of how much you love Him. Don't stop doing good, especially when making disciples. As Paul tells the Philippians, Philippians 4.8 Make disciples. It will cost you much, but it's worth it. Now, second point. I'm going to look into the word promise. Promise. Disciple making, as I mentioned before, is an impossibility without Christ's power working through us. That alone should make us jump out of a frivolous attitude to one of fervency and passion. The mind is a crazy thing, isn't it? We forget so easily. That is why the last point this morning is a forever reminder for us that Christ is the one edifying his church and that nothing on this earth or below it will ever stop him. The last point this morning of the sermon is the word promise. Right after instructing us not to only preach the gospel to all, baptizing them and committing to a life of discipleship, the Lord in verse 20 reminds us of a crucial element in making disciples. He says, and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. This promise is solely here to encourage you when you need strength, encouragement, inspiration, and motivation. Christ promises that when making disciples, He will be with you and never forsake you. Not that He ever will, we know that. But in the context of the passage, we know that this refers to disciple making. Throughout the history of the church, Many perilous times arose, and the enemies of God and the world threw everything they could at them, at the church, at the faithful, to deter them from making disciples to accomplish their mission. When asked why and how they were able to push harder and never give up or give in, many of them responded with this verse. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Christ never promised that making disciples would be an easy task. He never did that. He never gave us a false sense of what making disciples would be like. In the contrary, He said in John 6.33, And I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world. The world will throw everything at you to deter you from fulfilling the great commission. But the promise is ever present. He is with you always, even to the end of the age. And as Jesus said, but take heart, I have overcome the world. I don't know what you may be going through this morning. I don't know. Maybe you have health issues that are stopping you from serving the Lord. Maybe you have been hurt by others and don't want to be vulnerable. Vulnerable, this word kills me all the time. Vulnerable again. For some, you might have severe depression or you are so overwhelmed with life's responsibilities This is a great reminder for you this morning. Yes, life is hard, and the world is ruthless, and our enemy is strong, and he's walking about like a roaring lion looking to devour, but take heart. I have overcome the world, the Lord says. And not only has He overcome the world, He says, behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Take heart. Even in our sufferings and shortcomings, you can also be fruitful in the gospel. Because when you feel that you are in sinking sand, He is the one pulling you out of it. And giving you the strength to continue on, not to be comfortable, not to be complacent, but to continue the work for His kingdom purposes. He has given you everything necessary for you to be successful on your mission. He has given you another helper, His Spirit. He has given you gifts so that you may exercise them for the benefit of others. He is the one that sanctifies you and sees you about your spiritual growth. And yet there is more. He says, behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. This is my conclusion. The priority of the church always ought to be the Great Commission. Everything we do, ministries, worship, evangelism, all should point to the Great Commission, not the other way around. I pray that this sermon has encouraged you. May you continue to fight the good fight of the faith. May we as the body focus on the things that really matter. Focusing on rescuing perishing souls. As Jesus said in Matthew 6.33, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Don't worry about where your food will come tomorrow, where your next patient will come. Yes, work hard, I'm not saying that, but know that He is with you even to the end of the age, and if you focus on His kingdom, everything else will be added. That is a promise. We could take that to the bank. Let us be available for His kingdom purposes, submitting to His authority, obeying the command of preaching the gospel to all nations. Be obedient to His call. Don't sit idle. Go and make disciples with your children and people around you. And finally, constantly remember His promise. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we've heard your word. Lord, only you could do much with our little fishes and little breads. That's all we bring to the table. You multiply. You're the one seeking lost. Lord, I pray that whatever has been said this morning has an impact for your kingdom and your kingdom purposes. Lord, I pray for our church. and we be encouraged to go out and make disciples. Lord, we don't want to be complacent. We don't want to be comfortable. We want to be out there, even within our church. Let us practice making strong, mature believers. Lord, would You do that for us, for Your glory, for Your honor, for Your name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.