Okay, Matthew 28. Matthew 28. Just the part that I want to focus on to this morning is just that last
passage of the Great Commission. What is known as the Great Commission, right? Jesus Christ being
resurrected and telling His disciples, hey, go to Galilee, to a mountain. And this is what, you know,
I believe this is where there was over 500 witnesses of Christ's resurrection. And what did
He say to them? There in Matthew 28. In from verse, let's have a look at verse 18. 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 of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always,
even unto the end of the world. Amen. Such just beautiful words that Jesus Christ spoke to His
disciples. And before I start, before I teach on this passage here, I just want to do a little bit
of a trivia. Okay, Victor, Victor can't answer these questions. But something that's interesting
about this, the start of this new church. Does anybody know the church that sent out Victor to
start the church in Punchbowl? Does anyone know the name of the church? If you know the name,
put your hand up. Alison? Lighthouse Baptist Church. Alright, we're meeting at the Lighthouse
Rugby Union Club. Alright, another point of trivia. Does anyone know where the church in
Punchbowl, what street the church in Punchbowl meet at? Simon? Arthur Street. Arthur Street. So
it's funny how just all that has come together. It wasn't my plan. So I just thought it was
funny. Alright, good, good, you pass. So this morning I just want to preach on what are the
goals of our church? Why does this church exist? Why have I uprooted my family from Sydney, wife
and nine children to come and start this church with the rest of you? What are the goals? What
are we trying to achieve? Okay, that's what I want to cover today. And obviously, we look at
this great commission that Jesus Christ gave and He gave this great commission in a few passages. I
believe there's four all together and you might argue that there's five. But basically, since
Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead, He gave very clear instructions to the disciples to
go and preach the gospel, to go and teach all nations. And a lot of people confuse this passage
in Matthew 28. They think Jesus is teaching this before He ascended up to heaven. But this was
actually a mountain Galilee. This wasn't the Mount of Olives. In Acts chapter 1, we do read
about the great commission in the Mount of Olives before He was taken up and ascended up into
heaven. So He actually gave this same teaching multiple times throughout the Bible. And the first
thing I just want you to notice is the first instruction that God gives us in verse 19. What
does it say? Go, right? Go ye therefore. So what were we doing yesterday? What was the point of
yesterday? You know, a lot of people think, hey, the way to teach all nations, the way to preach
the gospel is to bring the unsaved into the church. This is what a lot of the liberal fun
center churches have done, right? They want to bring the community into the church. Hey, they
have the right motives. I want to have visitors. I want to have strangers come and visit this
church, obviously. But I'm not going to tailor the church for that. I'm going to tailor the church
for the believers. The instruction that we have been given is to go ye therefore. Therefore,
what do you mean therefore? Well, in verse 18, what did Jesus say? And Jesus came and
spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. And I'll just quickly
say something. I once had a Muslim man say to me, you know, where does Jesus, you know, the red words
in the Bible, if you've got a red letter Bible, Jesus' words, where did Jesus ever say, hey, I'm
God, worship me? And I turn to this passage. What did Jesus say? All power is given unto me where?
In heaven and in earth. Who's got all power in heaven and in earth? It's only God. And he had
to acknowledge, yeah, the only person that has all power in heaven and earth is God. We worship
our God. Jesus is saying, hey, all power is given to me. I've got all power. Therefore, go and teach
all nations. We go and teach people the gospel in the power of Jesus Christ. All that power that is
in heaven, all that power is in the earth, that is what motivates us. That's what empowers us to go
and preach to all nations. Go out. And you might be, this passage reminds me of Luke chapter 14. If
you can turn to Luke 14, please, that'd be great. Luke chapter 14. This idea of going, going and
not bringing people into the church. Because remember that these fun center churches, right,
they want to bring in the community, which I said, like, that's a good idea. You want to bring
people in. But what do they do? They tailor the church service to be like a rock concert. They
tailor the church service to be appealing to the flesh rather than something that is appealing to
our Lord God. It's a big mistake that they make. So our instruction is to go and look at Luke 14
verse 16. We'll read from there. Luke 14 verse 16. This is the parable. And then, this is Jesus
saying, and then said he unto him, a certain man made a great supper and bade many. So man is doing
a great supper, a great feast, and he's gone and he's invited many, many of his friends, many of
the people that he knows, right. Verse 17. And sent his servants at suppertime to say to them
that were bidden, come, for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to
make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground and I must needs go and
see it. I pray thee, have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen and I go to
prove them. I pray thee, have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife and therefore I
cannot come. And why don't you just take your wife with you, right. He says, I've married a wife, I
cannot come. And so, before I read on, this is a picture of Jesus Christ going to his people,
going to the Jews, okay. The Jews were to receive Christ, were to believe on Christ, but so many
rejected him. Many believed on him, praise God, right. The reason churches exist today is because
many of those Jews were saved and started the churches and were the first bishops. But many,
the nation as a whole, rejected Christ. What had nothing to do with him. And then look, it says
here in verse 21, so the servant came and showed his Lord these things. Then the master of the
house being angry said to the servant, go, the same command that God has given us in the Great
Commission, go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and
the maimed and the holt and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou has
commanded and yet there is room. I want you to focus on those words, and yet there is room. What
did we do yesterday as we went to preach the gospel? Just like in verse 22, we as servants
said, Lord, it is done as thou has commanded, right. We went out preaching the gospel as the
Lord has commanded, but yet there is room. Okay, our mission to preach the gospel is something
that continues on and on and on, week after week after week. There will always be more room until
the Lord Jesus Christ comes back, right, until he comes back and establishes his kingdom. There
was always room for more. Verse 23, and the Lord said unto the servant, go out into the highways
and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. For I say unto you that none
of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper. So those that had rejected Christ,
those that didn't want anything to do with him, those that were invited to begin with,
the Lord says those men will not taste of the supper. But to go out to the highways and to the
hedges and compel, that's to motivate and get people to come and take part of the Lord's supper.
Come and take part of salvation, of eternal life through Jesus Christ. And so you can see how the
master says to the servant, go. The servant says, hey, there's still more room. All right,
go again. Go to the, go everywhere. Go to the highways and go wherever you need to go. Bring
people in so my house may be filled. So the instruction we have as a church and the reason,
one of the goals we exist to go out and preach the gospel, amen. And then we have number two,
what does it say here in verse, sorry, back to Matthew 28. You go back to Matthew 28. I should
have told you to keep a finger there. Anyway, go back to Matthew 28, verse 19. Go ye therefore,
and what? Just go and teach all nations. That includes Australia, right? All nations,
the Bible says. All nations. Now I just want to point out to you that the gospel is for all
nations, okay. The gospel is for all. That's what very clear from Christ's teaching, all nations.
And you might, you know, some people might say, well, where does it say here that we're to teach
the gospel to all nations, right? But we can easily deduct that from what we read here. It
says here later on, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost. So
it says, hey, teach them and then baptize them. So what is it that we want to teach people before
we baptize them? It's the gospel. It's salvation, right? It's common sense. We can easily get that
by deducing that from the scriptures here. But just to prove that further, please keep it again,
keep a finger in Matthew 28. Please go to Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16. I just want to prove
that from the scriptures. Mark chapter 16, verse 15 to 16. Mark 16, verse 15 to 16. And he said
unto them, so this is the Great Commission being given again at a separate point. And he said unto
them, go ye into all the world. So not just all the nations, but into all the world. And preach
what? The gospel to every creature. Yeah? And then it says here, he that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. So it's talking about the baptism again. He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And just to quickly point out, what is it that
damns a man according to this verse? He that believeth not. So the gospel is believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Once we believe the gospel, the next task is obviously to be baptized. I just
wanted to prove that from to you from the scriptures that the teach all nations is preach
the gospel to every creature, right? We can see that here in Mark chapter 16. So the gospel is
for all. What are we teaching? We're teaching the gospel. And by the way, what is teaching? What's
the difference between preaching and teaching? Okay, now my understanding, as best as I think,
think of a teacher, like a school teacher, right? Like right now, I'm preaching. I'm just,
I'm just speaking and I'm hoping it's been absorbed by you guys. But what does the teacher
do? A teacher kind of goes back and forth with that student, right? They make sure that student
fully understands what they're listening to. And so when we go and preach the gospel, yes,
we preach, but we're also to teach. We need to make sure that the person we're preaching to is
understanding, is comprehending what is being said. And I know, look, the first time you go soul
winning, you're very nervous, you probably have a plan, you've got all these verses memorized,
you know exactly where you want to go. And what you end up doing is just preaching. Okay,
and because you're nervous and you're not sure, you just, you just do your spill, right? But
sometimes you don't pay attention whether you've actually taught that person. Okay,
so that's why it's important. I believe it's very important as you preach, to teach. Ask
them questions and make sure they understand what is being heard. Okay. And quite often,
you know, like with a Roman, like there's a lot of Roman Catholics, there's a lot of Orthodox,
there's a lot of people Christian by name that aren't actually saved, but they know the gospel,
they understand that Jesus died for their sins. So I'll often tell them, hey, what, so what did
Jesus do for you? Oh, he died on the cross. Oh, why did he die on the cross? Oh, he died for our
sins. Yeah, so you're engaging that person, you're teaching them, you're making sure they understand
what is being said. So that's how I understand the difference between preaching, you know,
just me standing here and just, just, you know, preaching God's Word and teaching and making sure
there's that dialogue happening so they understand what is being said. So the next thing is strategy.
What kind of strategy do we have when we go and preach the gospel? Turn with me to Acts chapter 1.
Acts chapter 1. Again, the Great Commission being given here before Christ ascends. Acts chapter 1.
Acts chapter 1 verse 7 to 9. Acts chapter 1 verses 7 to 9. And he said unto, and he said unto them,
it is not for you to know the times of the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, but
ye shall receive power. Remember, it ties in with what we read in Matthew 28 where all power is
given to Jesus, right? From heaven and on earth. Jesus says, but ye shall receive power. After that,
the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me in both in Jerusalem and in
Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had spoken these things,
while they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sights. So we see that's
the ascension of Christ into heaven. But I just want to see this part of the Commission, this
teaching now shows you the strategy, right? Jesus says first Jerusalem. Go to Jerusalem first. That's
where you are. Preach the gospel. Once you're done there, go to Judea, right? Then to Samaria and
unto the uttermost part of the earth. And so I want to adopt the same strategy that Jesus has
said here, right? So, and I've heard a lot of preachers say this, you know, let's say Caloundra,
that's our Jerusalem or we can say the Sunshine Coast. That's like our Jerusalem, right? And then
what's Judea? Judea is like Queensland, right? Judea is like Queensland. And then Samaria. You
know, who are the Samaritans to the Queenslanders? Probably those from New South Wales, right?
They're the Samaritans. So go to all the other states in Australia, you know? And then, and unto
the uttermost part of the world, okay, to all the nations, right? So that's one way you can interpret
this. And that's a strategy that I want to take, okay? I want to focus primarily here, Caloundra
and the surrounding suburbs, and then we'll branch out and reach the rest of the Sunshine Coast. One
of the goals that I want to set for this church is that every door on the Sunshine Coast will be
knocked by this church and that person has an opportunity to hear the gospel, okay? That's one
of the, you're saying, Kevin, that's crazy. There are some houses out there in the middle of nowhere.
All right, you know, if it takes five years, then that's what we're going to do. That's the goal. If
it takes 10 years, that's the goal. If it takes the next generation to do it, that's the goal,
okay? That's the goal for our church, to knock on every door here on the Sunshine Coast and to be
involved in gospel preaching ministries outside of this area as well, okay? But another way to
interpret this passage here, and you know, it really is the primary application, okay? Because
we know that the gospel was preached in Jerusalem, right? Because many, many Jews were saved. When we
look at, you know, the day of Pentecost, you guys are probably familiar with that. I think it was
3,000 people that were saved. And then it was preached in all Judea. And then in Acts
chapter 8, when you have time you can read about it, it was preached in Samaria. And then, so right
now, where are we in this teaching? We are the uttermost part of the earth, right? I mean, when
Jesus said these words, wouldn't Australia be the uttermost part of the earth? So when we look at
this, this is where we're at. We're fulfilling the final part that Jesus Christ has laid upon
His people. And so our job is to preach the gospel right here in Australia in the uttermost part of
the earth. So we see the strategy given to us as well here. And the reason we know that, you know,
I'll just read it to you. You don't have to turn there. Acts 28, 28. Be it known therefore unto you
that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and that they will hear it. Because if
you remember, this is at the end of Acts. Paul was trying to reach the Israelites, trying to reach
the Jews. It's like he's reached the maximum. Most of them were, you know, that were going to believe,
had already believed. And the rest had rejected Christ. And he goes, all right, I'm done here. Now
it's time to teach the Gentiles. And that's what it means by teaching the uttermost part of the
earth. He went out and preached throughout Asia Minor and throughout Europe. So we are here now
in Australia and our job is here to preach to our people here in Australia. But the next thing I
want to talk about is what is the primary reason for preaching the gospel? And I spoke about this
briefly yesterday. Okay, what is the primary reason? And a lot of people think it's to save
souls and amen. It is. You know, saving souls, absolutely it is. But what did Jesus say in John
chapter 14 verse 15? If you love me, if you, do you love Jesus Christ? Jesus says, if you love me,
keep my commandments. If you love me, keep my commandments. That's how we love Him. You know,
I hear people say, you know, sometimes you have this sort of backslidden Christian, right? He's
like in the world, you know, he doesn't, he's sort of stopped caring about church and things
of God. And I hear people say, yeah, but he loves God. He still loves God. He loves Jesus. No,
he doesn't, because he's not keeping the commandments. Jesus says, if you love me,
keep my commandments, right? And we know how much we love Jesus based on how much of His
commandments we're keeping, all right? So number one reason to preach the gospel is out of love
for Jesus, right? He commanded us to go and preach the gospel. We do it because we love Him. But the
second reason, I want to show you this. Turn to Jeremiah chapter 7, Jeremiah chapter 7. But the
second reason is out of obedience. And that really is keeping that commandment. Like,
we keep the commandments, we're doing that out of obedience. But I just want to show you something
here. Jeremiah chapter 7, verse 27. Jeremiah 7, verse 27. I'll give you a minute to turn there,
because I think this is important. So if you're not familiar with Jeremiah chapter 7, God tells
Jeremiah, hey, I need you to go and preach at the gates of the temple, okay? Because it's talking
about the Israelites. They're stiff-necked people. They're not hearing me. I need you to go. And if
you read the chapter, we're not going to spend time on it, but the Israelites are saying, hey,
you know, we've got the temple. We've got the Ark of the Covenant. We've got the law of God. And
because we have these things, we're right with God. But no, they weren't living the way God
wanted them to live, right? They weren't serving God. They had religion, right? They had their
traditions and their rituals, and they thought they were right with God because of that. But
they had no true love for God. And God sends Jeremiah to go and preach at the gates of the
temple. And in verse 27, look what God says to Jeremiah. Jeremiah's a prophet, right? He's a
preacher. He's going to preach to the Israelites. And then verse 27, God is speaking to Jeremiah.
Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee. Thou
shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee. So what's Jesus saying? I mean,
God's saying, He's saying, go and preach. I want you to preach. I want you to go and warn them,
but they're not going to listen to you. They're not going to hearken to you. They're not going
to answer thee. I mean, this man's a prophet. God's sending him to do something, and Jeremiah
already knows they're not going to listen. It's going to fail. I mean, imagine, right? Imagine
if God tells you, go and preach. You know, go make an example of yourself. You know,
you'd probably be really cool for preaching his word and do that, but you know what? No one's
going to listen to you. They're not going to answer you. Isn't that going to be difficult
for us to do? Because we think, hey, that's unsuccessful. So what was Jeremiah's motivation
to preach if he already knew beforehand that no one was going to listen to him? It was obedience,
wasn't it? God said, go do this. Jeremiah said, all right. They're not going to listen to me,
but I'm going to obey my Lord God, and I'm going to go and preach to these Israelites. So I want
you to remember when we preach the gospel, we do it out of the love for Jesus Christ,
and we do it out of obedience. And when we get to present the gospel, when we get to plant seeds,
when we get to reap the harvest and see people saved, that's just icing on the cake. That's the
best bit. That's what we get to rejoice and celebrate. But you know, I want you to rejoice
and celebrate when you go and preach the gospel because we're doing it out of obedience and out
of love for our God. Saving souls, this sounds bad, but it's true, but saving souls is our
secondary reason for preaching the gospel, okay? And the reason I say that is because, you know,
I've had times where I've gone week after week after week, and I've seen no one saved,
and it's easy to get discouraged. Or maybe you don't even have time to preach the gospel. Like,
it's just not interested. You give them a track. You try to get something in, and I've gone weeks
and weeks and weeks. Actually, you know last year's soul winning marathon? I went something
six weeks in a row, not seeing anyone saved in Sydney, last year's soul winning marathon. And
before those six weeks, I had five or six weeks, week after week, seeing people saved. It's
inconsistent. And so when I came to the soul winning marathon, I thought, oh man, I'm not
going to get anyone saved here. That was last year, right? And then, well, it was three people,
I think it was three people that got saved that Saturday. And then the next Saturday,
got another person saved. And then I went back to Sydney, and I went a few weeks again,
not seeing anyone saved, right? But here's the thing. Here's what's going to keep you motivated
and going, is knowing that we do it out of love and obedience to our God. And to accomplish this
goal of preaching the gospel to the Sunshine Coast, our church is going to set two soul winning days
per week. Two soul winning days per week, okay? The first soul winning day will be straight after
church service on Sundays. Now, we're not going to do it this Sunday. We've had our soul winning
marathon yesterday. Okay, but don't get comfortable. From next Sunday, soul winners were going out and
preaching the gospel straight after the church service. And the other day, this will be my own
personal soul winning marathon, you know, every week. Every Thursday, I'll be out preaching the
gospel in the morning, come home for lunch, and then go out in the afternoon as well. So I don't
know, you guys work, you know, many of you have, you know, full time jobs and, and, you know, I
don't expect obviously you got work, you're going to be there. But if you do happen to have the day
off, or you don't, you just happen to not be working that Thursday, please let me know. And
I'd love to have you as my partner as well, as we go and knock doors on that day. And look, if
there's any other day, I'm saying two days minimum. And if there's other days that for you
guys that are better, hey, let me know, let's make it three days or four days, whatever we need to
go and accomplish this goal. The second thing I want to say is training will be provided. If
you've never preached the gospel, you might be afraid to do that you might be afraid to speak
the gospel and speak to people door to door. You can go to the silent partner, just join up with
someone that that means we have more teams. That means more doors will be knocked. You can be
silent and just listen and just learn. Okay. And so training will be provided. Don't worry about
that. The other thing I want to say is, look, I'm not expecting that everybody in the church will go
soul winning. Okay, because I understand, especially, you know, mothers with little
children. I mean, if you can, like if you can swap and your husband can stay and look after the kids
and you can go out great, you know, I don't have an expectation that you know, necessarily everybody
will be out there. Okay, but I do want to say this, that if you're against, if you're against
soul winning, all right, you think it's a waste of time, you think it's stupid, you think it's not,
it doesn't work, then you're not welcome to this church. I'll just just flat out say it, if you
think it's stupid, all right, you're not welcome this church. You know why? Because you're just
going to discourage those that do want to go and preach the gospel. Okay, just going to discourage
and you go into a pill to the flesh. Because I'll tell you the truth. I don't wake up in the morning
wanting to knock doors. I don't wake up going, I can't wait to knock doors and preach the gospel.
All right, because that's my flesh, my flesh saying, I don't want to do it, I'm lazy. But the
Spirit says, no, go and do it, because you love the Lord, because you want to be obedient to him.
And when I hear, when people are knocking and telling you that, it don't go soul winning. That's
going to influence your flesh. It's going to feed the flesh and you're gonna be like, yeah, you know,
it is a waste of time. And it is going to impact you. So if you're like that, you're negative
against it. Okay, I don't want you here. Okay, there's plenty of churches that don't want to
do soul winning. Plenty of places to go, all right. And obviously, like I said, I don't expect everyone
that's going to be necessarily going to be able to do that. But if you're not able to do it, at least
pray. Pray for those that do go out and soul win. And ask that the Holy Spirit would empower them
as they go out. The second thing, back to Matthew 28 please. Matthew 28. The next thing, the next goal
of our church, still in verse number 19, is to baptize believers. So we've preached the gospel,
we've seen people saved. The next thing that Jesus says to them is, in verse 19, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. So baptize believers. Baptize who?
Those that believe the gospel. And you guys know this, I'll just read quickly. Acts 8 verse 36 to
38. This is the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, remember? And Philip. And the Bible says here,
verse 36, and as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said,
see, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? So the Ethiopian eunuch says, hey,
there's water here. What's preventing me? What's hindering me from being baptized? Verse 37,
and Philip said, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. So we see that the Ethiopian eunuch believed upon
Jesus Christ for his salvation, the salvation of his soul. And that is the requirement for someone
to be baptized. All right? So the next goal is to baptize believers. Oh, actually, I'll read verse 37
here. Sorry, verse 38. And he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they went down both into the
water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. They went down into the water, both Philip and
the eunuch, and he baptized him. Now, if you've been around churches, you'll know that there's two
common ways people baptize. It's either via immersion, under the water, or via sprinkling,
right? Now, I'm going to go to the Greek. Oh, Kevin, don't go back to the Greek. I'll go to
the Greek just briefly here, right? Because the thing is, baptism in our English language can
mean, if you do a dictionary search, it can mean any of those two things, the sprinkling or the
immersion. But here's the funny thing. The Roman Catholic Church, right? And I'm not Roman Catholic,
I'm not endorsing them whatsoever, or the Greek Orthodox Church. We have a former Greek Orthodox
here. All right? I'm not endorsing them. Be a Bible-believing Christian. But one of the main
reasons why the church split into the Greek Orthodox is because the Greek had the
Greek New Testament. And when they read baptized, the Greek word is baptizo, right? And they
knew that meant immersion or submersion, being submersed under the water. And so they knew,
they're Greek, they're reading the Greek. This means being submerged in the water. What are you
Catholics doing sprinkling babies? Unfortunately, they submerged babies. I mean, they still
messed it up. But I'll give them credit that they at least understood what it meant, you know,
to submerge into the water. So the practice of baptism that we're going to do in our church is
to go to a lake, go to a river, whatever, you know, there's plenty of water around here, right?
What of him the people to get baptized, they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and they'll be
submerged. Picturing the death of Jesus Christ, the burial, and the resurrection, okay? So the next goal
is to baptize believers. Also, the Bible says here to baptize them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. This is a great passage on the Trinity, right? The name,
it's the singular, the singular nature, the one God that we serve, who's represented by who? The
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And you know, we're a Trinitarian church. We believe in the
Father. I feel like I have to say that, because there's some recent controversy, some of you are
aware of that. But we believe in the Trinity. We believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
The Father sent the Son, the Son sent the Holy Spirit, okay? These three are one. We read about
that. That's not the main topic, but I just wanted to cover that. So our authority comes, or the name,
the authority of baptism comes from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. So our church is a
Trinitarian church, and so it is our goal to baptize believers. And so if you believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and you've not yet been baptized, I seriously ask that you consider it.
I'd be more than happy to baptize you. Not today, we're not ready for that, but if there's some of
you that need to be baptized, talk to him about it. And we just want to rejoice. Rejoice that
you're taking that step in identifying the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So if
you were baptized as a baby, all right, that's invalid. If you were baptized before you were a
believer, that's invalid. So if that's the case, say you haven't been baptized scripturally, all
right, so please consider whether you need baptism, and you can speak to me about that later on. The
third goal, the third goal for our church is found in Matthew 28 verse 20. Matthew 28 verse 20,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. So to teach the church,
once they've been saved, they've been baptized, all right, what's the next step? To teach the
church all things whatsoever I have commanded you. So observe all things, that's the whole Bible,
right, all things, the whole Bible, all 66 books of the King James Bible, all right, I believe it's
the perfect, preserved Word of God in English, all right, we're going to be teaching from this book.
If you've got another Bible with you, hey, no, you know, all right, relax, but I'm going to swap your
Bible, all right, I'm going to take your NIV from you, I'm going to take your New American Standard
Bible or your, whatever it is, I'll give you a King James Bible, I'll give you two, all right,
I'll make it a good deal, you give me your corrupt Bible, and I'll give you two King James Bibles,
all right, I'm going to be teaching the whole Bible. Turn with me to Acts chapter 20,
Acts chapter 20,
Acts chapter 20 verse 27, Acts chapter 20 verse 27.
For I have not shunned, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
So Paul says here to the believers here that I've not shunned, I've not hidden,
I've taught you, I've declared unto you all the counsel of God. It is my goal, guys, even if I'm
my goal, guys, even if I'm uncomfortable with some of the things that are in this word,
that I will not shun, I will teach you all the counsel, I make that promise to you guys,
that I will teach you all the counsel of God. Why? Look at verse 28. Take heed therefore unto
yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost have made you overseers. So a bishop,
the office of a bishop is an overseer, all right, to feed the church of God. How do I feed you
with pizza? We'll do that sometimes, right, with Thai food, yeah, we'll do that, sandwiches,
I'll feed you, all right, we'll do that. But what are we feeding them with? All the counsel of God,
we just read that right, all the counsel of God to feed the church of God which he has purchased
with his own blood. And look at this in verse 29, this is the warning. For I know this, that after
my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your
own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
Therefore watch. Guys, I mean, all right, I'm the overseer, yep, I'm the bishop of this church,
I'm to watch, but he's speaking to all the disciples here right now. Verse 31,
therefore watch. It's all our work, it's all our jobs to watch. And remember that by the space of
three years I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears. So Paul knowing, hey, there's
going to be grievous wolves that are going to come and attack the flock, bring in damnable heresies.
And look, I want to have a church, and something that I've learned from the church in Punchbowl,
I want to have a church where you guys are free to discuss the Word of God.
You guys are free to even disagree with me, all right. I've been to churches where people would
just not discuss the preaching after the service. Why? Because they're afraid. Or if I say something,
there comes the pastor, there comes the pastor, be quiet, be quiet. I've been there. I want you
guys to feel comfortable to open the Word of God, to challenge the things that I say, challenge one
another, lovingly, loving the brethren, right, not with an argumentative or debating spirit,
but we've loved opening the Word of God. Feel free, if we're not going to talk about the Bible
in the Church of God, where are we going to talk about the Bible, right? But at the same time,
when you do have that opening, grievous wolves are going to come in and teach their heresies,
all right. So I want to have an open environment, so that way when the grievous wolves do come in,
it's pretty obvious, right. They can't really hide, because they're comfortable. Oh,
everyone's talking about the Bible? Let me now teach them something, right. So it's going to be
obvious to us when we have those wolves. Hey, it's my responsibility to watch, but it's also
all our responsibility to watch for those wolves that will enter into our church, and they will
come into our church, I promise you that. All right, don't turn there. I'll just read from
you from 2 Timothy 4, verse 2 to 4. It's the same teaching really, but Paul is saying this
to Timothy. He says, preach the Word, be instant in season and out of season. So preach when it's
easy to preach when it's in season, right. When everyone agrees, when the whole nation agrees with
the Word of God, it's easy to preach those things. It's easy to preach love thy neighbor, right.
Everyone, like you go door knocking, yeah, you know, I do good, I'm a good person, I love my
neighbor. You know, that's what they say. It's easy to preach that, but then it's not easy to
preach against sodomites. It's not easy to preach against the homosexuals. It's not easy to preach
against same-sex marriage, right, because now that's out of season, right. The world's turned
back against the teachings of God, and it's harder to preach on these things, but you know,
the command is to preach in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke. Rebuke is to tell you
off. Guys, if I'm ever here telling you off, please don't think I'm doing that because I have some
pride in me, all right. If I do it, it's because the Word of God says to do it,
right, and if we're trying to please God and we're trying to live by His Word, then there's
going to be times that I have a go at you. I'll apologize for myself, but hey, I've got to do what
God wants me to do, right. Reprove, rebuke, exhort. That's build you up, encourage you. I
want to do that as well, all right. So if all I do is tell you off, I'm not doing the right job,
right. It's also to build up with all long suffering and doctrine. All long suffering,
right, and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears and they
shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. I would hate for this
church to turn unto fables, all right. Now I know I'm not perfect and I know no church is perfect
and there's always going to be something that, you know, we're not perfectly correct on, but
it would, I would hate it if we turn from the truth of God's Word and we're just openly accepting
fables, you know. So let's be watchful. So in order for us to go preach the gospel, baptize
believers, we also want to invite new believers to the church, right. So when we go and preach
the gospel, I don't want you to shy away from inviting people to the church. The main reason
we go out there is to preach the gospel, get them saved, but also invite them to church, okay. So
they can grow and learn when they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what I want to ask from you
guys is to welcome visitors. When we have someone new come in, you know, I'm going to do my best
to welcome them and to greet them, but you know what brings people to the church? It's people.
What brings families to the church are families. You know, if people come have children and they
see church with other children and the children are playing together, that's going to bring them
into the church, all right. And do I want to bring them into church just to grow the church and to
build myself a kingdom and grow my name? No, it's because we want to make this our goal, right,
to teach the believers to observe all things. So we want to encourage and help grow all believers
that we come across our paths with. And you know, just be mindful that some visitors might not be
saved, you know, some of those visitors might not be baptized, and every visitor and yourselves will
and myself, we need to grow in knowledge. So that's why that's our third goal is to teach the whole
Bible, all 66 books of the King James Bible. Back to Matthew 28.
Matthew 28 verse 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
And this is the most important bit for me, just the last bit here.
And lo, I am with you all way, even unto the end of the world. Amen. I'll just read that again from
Jesus Christ. And lo, I'm with you all way, even unto the end of the world. What a beautiful
promise from our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, and I've preached this at the church in Punchbowl,
but did you guys know there's a difference between all ways and all way? You know, sometimes we read
all way, why they forget the S or that must be the old way of spelling always. And they're very
similar, okay. But always is in reference to time. You know, if I say to my wife, I will love you
always, I'm saying I'll love you forever, right. But all the way is reference to direction.
All the way. Jesus says, I will be with you all the way. Why is he saying that? Because he just
finished saying, go and teach all nations, right. Go into the outermost part of the world. And Jesus
saying, hey, no matter where you go, I will be with you all the way, all right. So firstly,
let me just say, I believe the Lord wants me here, all right. But here's the thing. It doesn't matter
where we go, all right. It doesn't matter where we go, as long as we have these three priorities
in our lives to preach the gospel, baptize believers, teach all things, Jesus makes a
promise that he will be with us all the way, even until the end of the world. Now, I don't know if
my generation is the one that will see the end of the world, but here's the promise. It might be our
children, it might be our grandchildren, but Jesus says, look, I'll be with you all the way, even
until the end of the world. So whatever we commence here, guys, I want this to continue generation
after generation after generation until the end of the world. And Jesus says, hey, I will be with you
all the way. Because, all right, like, if Jesus wasn't here, if Jesus wasn't with us, if God was
not here blessing us, let's just pack up now and go, right. I mean, well, I don't want to have a
social club, all right. You know, I'm not, you know, I don't like having too many friends,
I'll be honest with you. It takes time, and I've got a big family already. That takes up a lot of
my time. But we want to be here because the Lord Jesus Christ is here, right. I want to serve Him.
We want to make sure He's here being blessed, being glorified, being honored, all right. And
Jesus Christ is here. That's His promise to us. Just like salvation is His promise to us. Just
like that you can never lose your salvation is a promise to us. The promise is that if we keep
these three priorities in our church, Jesus Christ will be with us all the way, even until the end of
the world. So grab onto that promise guys. If you ever feel a little distant from God, a little
distant from Jesus, just remember that Jesus Christ is with us in this church as long as we
keep these priorities the main thing. So that's pretty much what I wanted to cover today. Let me
just repeat those three goals. Number one, to go and preach the gospel, okay. Number two,
to baptize believers, right. And number three, to teach all things, to teach the whole Bible.
Now what I'm going to do, something you've probably never really done before,
is right now I'm just talking to those that are going to be regular church attendees, right. Those
that are going to make this your home church. You're going to be here as often as you can,
hopefully week in, week out. All right, I'm talking to you guys right now. If you agree with me,
if you want to make these three goals the goal of this church, because remember what's a church?
It's the gathering, it's the congregation, right. It's not just me. I can set these goals,
but I want these to be the goals of the church. I want these to be your goals, all right. And if
you agree with me, then I'm just going to ask you can you please stand up. If you're a regular,
you're going to be a regular attendee, week in, week out, and you agree with what I'm saying,
I want you to stand up if you agree with me that these are our goals for this church, all right.
Now in front of these witnesses, right, in front of God, we're saying these are our goals, right.
We're saying these are our goals. And I want the rest of you guys, the rest of you guys that
haven't stood up yet because you know you're from another church or you're not, you know,
it's not your regular church. If you want these three goals to be the goals of the church in
Caloundra, okay, obviously you're not going to be able to work with us in that way, but here's what
you can do. You can pray for us. You can pray that we do aim to work toward these goals. If you agree
with that, can you please stand up. If you promise to pray for this church and these goals of this
church, can you please stand up. All right guys, look around. Look around, all right. Are we in
one accord? Wait, let me get this camera. I hope it's recording. Let me get this camera, all right.
All right, let's put this back. What's that? What's that?
All right, congratulations guys. This is our first church vote. All right, you can take a seat.
You can take a seat. All right, straightforward, right? I mean, I'm not sure what you thought you
might hear this morning, but I just wanted to lay out what our goals are, guys, and I thank you
that you're in agreement to that.
Let's pray, let's pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, Lord,
I just want to thank you, Lord, for your word. Lord, we thank you for the great commission
that you've given us and you've given to other like-minded churches. Lord, I do pray that we
would put you first in our lives. Lord, I pray that you would help us to achieve these goals,
that we would go and preach the gospel, help us to have a heart that's compassionate towards
sinners, those that are lost. Lord, I just pray that you'd also encourage those that are saved,
that need to be baptised, Lord, and to associate themselves with death,
bread and resurrection in a public way, Lord, that they were to
approach me, Lord, and be baptised. And Lord, help us to find these people that need to take
this step of obedience. And Lord, I just pray that you'd fill me to encourage me,
Lord, to preach the whole word of God, even those things that I might be uncomfortable with, Lord,
that I would serve your people. Lord, give me wisdom to teach your word. And Lord, I just pray,
Lord, we do commit this to you. We promise this to you, Lord, as a church. Help us to never waver
from our task, Lord. If we ever fall away from these goals, Lord, just give us a wake-up call.
Lord, even if it means to pull me out of this pulpit and put another man in charge, Lord,
I just pray that would be done. And Lord, I just pray, Lord, that you'd just help us to always,
Lord, no matter what church ministry that we do moving forward, that we would always
remember these three goals for our church. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.