So this morning, I want to talk to you guys about making disciples. And specifically,
the end part of making a disciple, the importance of baptism and the importance of church attendance
and getting people in here to be discipled. Over the last few weeks, a lot of guys have been up
here telling you, get your gospel plan ready. Know what you're going to say when you ask the
question. And that's great. We do need to know that. We need to be ready to give an answer to
every man that answers, right? And get your gospel plan ready. But after you get your plan ready and
you know what you're going to say, after that, what happens when you get them saved? What are
you going to do next? And I want to show you this morning that baptism and church attendance
is important. It's important for us to push that. And of course, we need to make sure that
they are saved, that they understand biblical salvation by grace through faith. They can't lose
it. No repenting of your sins. And we run into people like that, right? We run into saved people
all the time. But it's also our job not just to leave them there because they're saved and
that's great, but we should. So point number one this morning, or the tip number one is that
we should teach them why they should be baptized, why they should be baptized. First of all,
it's commanded to be baptized. Jesus commanded it. Look at verse 19 of Matthew 28. It says,
"'Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son of the Holy Ghost.'" Jesus commanded it. Peter commanded it. You don't have
to turn to Acts 10, 47, 48 says, "'Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized
which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?' And he commanded them to be baptized in the name
of the Lord, then prayed they him to tarry certain days." So see, there's a commandment.
And see, we know this and a lot of when we go out and talk to people, I think a lot of us think
that people know these things. Like they know why they should be baptized. Actually, a lot of people
have a lot of wrong ideas why they should be baptized, right? So it's our job to kind of show
them that if they're willing. Obviously, some people might not want to talk about it, but if
they're willing to listen to you about it, you should offer that to them. And number two, you
should offer it because they should be baptized because they love the Lord and want to identify
with him and want to become part of a church and get to the work of God. Acts 2, 41 says,
"'Then they that gladly received his word were baptized the same day there were added unto them
about 3,000 souls.'" So you know what? I've never seen anyone that got saved or coming to a church
and didn't get baptized. I've never seen them stick around. I've never seen them really get
involved long-term, right? Their hair and they're kind of gone. Never took it too seriously. So
baptism is important. And I know why we kind of don't emphasize it enough when we're out,
because we're trying to not associate it with works. And I get that. But if we get someone
that you know, they give you a clear testimony of salvation, and they've never been baptized,
we should push it. If they're willing to listen, we should push it, all right?
And then the second tip or the second point of this is teaching why they should come to a church
and be in church and be discipled. Matthew 28, verse 20, look at that. It says,
"'Teaching them to observe all things.'" See, if they don't come to church, you're not going to
learn all things. To be honest, I mean, I know the Holy Ghost, once you're saved, can teach you
all things. But to be honest, most people aren't going to read their Bible. I mean,
there's a lot of people in a church like this that aren't reading their Bible, as sad as that is.
And you're not going to learn all things, right? You might be on your way to heaven,
you might be saved, but you're not going to learn all things. 1 Timothy chapter 3,
verse 15 says, "'But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself
in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of
the truth.'" The truth. See, how are they going to get truth? See, when I got saved, you know what,
there's a lot of things I didn't know. I didn't know. And I started out in a good church and I
started learning. And like the pastor is saying that you take the mirror and say, a good pastor
is going to do that. They're going to take this and you're going to, wow, I didn't even know that
was a sin. Wow, I didn't know I should be doing that. And it starts really exposing your sin life,
even though you're saved, it exposes it. So to get them in here, get people in here to teach them
all things. And Hebrews 10 25 says, "'Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as a manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.'"
Now we have the exhorting part of that because people could watch it on the live stream
and they can get preaching online and that's great. You can get a lot of good teaching,
but there's something different about being in church. There's something different about
sitting in church and having the man of God preached to you, hearing the word God preached
to you. And then after that, guess what? You can be exhorted. Because you know what, it's hard.
I don't want you to do this, but if you raise your hand, how many would you go soul-wanting on your
own this morning if you didn't have a church like this to send you out? Most people aren't going to
get up, go on their own and go out and knock doors. Now, if you would, praise God. But most
people need, you need it. That's why God developed the church, has a church. You do the work through
the church. You need that to send you out, to keep you encouraged. And there's a great spirit here.
There's a great exhorting that does go on here that we have and we want people to have part of
that. So if people show interest today at the door, if they take the invitation and they go,
where's this church at? Or what kind of church is this? It'd be think and say,
hey, I'd like to, can I get your information? Can I text you? Can I send you something in the mail?
I mean, we got, I love my church Sunday coming up. Say, hey, I want you to be my guest. Come,
come. I would like you to come to my church on a special day, especially if you get them saved.
I mean, it's your job to kind of, it's your spiritual baby, so to speak. You're supposed
to get their information, follow up with them. Go, if they don't have time to talk about baptism,
go back. Talk to them about baptism. Talk to them about coming to church and getting excited about
the things of God. I mean, hopefully Corona is going to die down here pretty soon. And I mean,
Lord willing, and people won't be so afraid because right now I know there's a lot of fear.
Some people aren't even opening the door, but there's always that one. There's someone out
that's going to engage you this morning. So, reach them where they're at spiritually. Like I said,
if they're saved, let's talk to them about baptism. If they're not saved, let's get them
saved. Let's teach them the way of salvation. What if they're saved and baptized, but they're
in a church that's not very good, right? A lot of us came from churches maybe that weren't very
good, not preaching things that are helping you. Don't you want to get them here? I mean,
really think about that. If you can't brag on this place, if you can't brag on it and you're
not excited and say, and I'm guilty of it, I've done it, where they're saved, they give a
third testimony of salvation. You're like, yeah, here's the information. I want you to come,
this and that, and they take it and you just start walking away. Maybe you go home and pray for them
and you say, man, I hope they show up. You realize that that's probably not going to happen.
Unless they're already looking for a church like this, that's not going to happen.
You're going to have to get their information. You're going to have to text them. You're going
to have to engage with them because Satan's really good about keeping people out of a place like
this, right? Because they're going to get truth when they come here. And it doesn't take much.
I mean, someone that's not in the routine, it's not their manner to come to church,
it doesn't take much to get someone that they say they're going to come or they have every
intention to come and guess what? Oh, we overslept or guess what? This happened or that happened
or guess what? Football's on today, so I just totally forgot about it. That's the reality.
That's going to happen. So as the soul winner, I mean, yes, we want to go out and have the gospel
on our lips, want to be preaching it, but what about people that are already saved and they're
just sitting there doing nothing? They're saved. Maybe they're saved and baptized and they're
sitting there doing nothing. We want to get them in a place like this. Why? To exhort them,
come here and let the pastor preach to them, to teach them all things.
Because, I mean, I've grown since I've been here, right? You've grown since you've been here.
You're excited about tomorrow, aren't you? You're excited about the service tomorrow? You should be.
See, because if you're not and you're trying to invite someone, they could tell.
People can tell. If you're not excited and you're going to try and invite someone here,
they're like, do you even want to be there tomorrow? I mean, get excited. I mean,
you got to get, I know it's hard. We get tired. Get engaged saying, hey, I want you to come to
Verity Baptist Church because there's no place like this. There's not another church like this.
And I'm not saying that with arrogant. I'm saying that if you can get them to come to
one service, they will experience something that they've never experienced. I mean,
we could have testimony after testimony of people coming up here saying, man, this church is great.
This church helped me here. This church clean this up. I did this and I did that. I wasn't doing
this. Now I'm doing this. I didn't read nine chapters a day. Now I'm reading nine chapters
a day. Don't you want other people to have that? I do. I do. So as we depart and we go out into the
community, yes, preach the gospel, but thinking all these other things that are part of the Great
Commission about getting someone baptized and getting them in church and getting them
discipled. And it's going to take us all to do it. All of this. All right. So let's bow our heads
for a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Father, I do thank you for allowing us to go out and serve
you, Lord. I just pray you be with all of us and fill us with the Spirit to go out and preach the
gospel and get people baptized, get them in here for discipleship, Lord. Thank you. Keep us safe,
Lord. In Jesus' name, we ask all these things. Amen.