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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] All right, good morning everyone. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Let's all find our seats. As you find your seat, go ahead and grab a songbook. Turn to song number 65. Song number 65 for our first song here this morning, Just Over in the Gloryland. And let's all stand together for this first song if you are able. Song number 65, Just Over in the Gloryland. All together nice and strong on that first verse. I've a home prepared where the saints abide. Just over in the gloryland. And I long to be by my Savior's side. Just over in the gloryland. Just over in the gloryland. I'll join the happy angel band. Just over in the gloryland. Just over in the gloryland. There with the mighty host I'll stand. Just over in the gloryland. I am on my way to those mansions fair. Just over in the gloryland. There to sing God's praise and His glory share. Just over in the gloryland. Just over in the gloryland. The happy angel band. Just over in the gloryland. Just over in the gloryland. There with the mighty host I'll stand. Just over in the gloryland. Just over in the gloryland. What a joyful God that my Lord I'll see. Just over in the gloryland. And with kindreds say, Wherefore ever be? Just over in the gloryland. Just over in the gloryland. There with the mighty host I'll stand. Just over in the gloryland. Just over in the gloryland. Just over in the gloryland. With the blood washed wrong I will shout and sing. Just over in the gloryland. Level zenas to Christ the Lord and King. Just over in the gloryland. Just over in the gloryland. I'll join the happy angel band. Just over in the gloryland. Just over in the gloryland. With the mighty host I'll stand. Just over in the gloryland. Amen. Wonderful singing. Let's start off our service with the word of prayer. Dear Lord God, Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much, Lord, for giving us another day that you can come here to your house and hear the preaching of your word and fellowship with all our brothers and sisters in Christ here this morning. And I thank you, Lord, for everyone that's here in the building this morning. I ask that you please just bless our service. Every aspect of it, the singing, Lord, and most of all, please fill past me here with your spirit as he preaches your word unto us and give us also your spirit, Lord, and attentiveness that we may leave here edified. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Please turn your song books to song number 308. Song number 308, I Surrender All. Song number 308, all together on that first verse. All to Jesus I surrender. All to him I freely give. I will ever love and trust him in his presence. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee my blessed Savior. I surrender all. All to Jesus I surrender. Humbly at his feet I bow. Worldly pleasures all forsaken. Take me, Jesus, take me now. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee my blessed Savior. I surrender all. All to Jesus I surrender. Make me Savior, Holy Thine. Let me feel the Holy Spirit. Truly know that thou art mine. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee my blessed Savior. I surrender all. All to Jesus I surrender. Lord, I give myself to thee. Fill me with thy love and power. Led by blessing fall on me. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to thee my blessed Savior. I surrender all. All right, great singing. Thank you so much for being here this morning. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. Just a few announcements here before we sing our next song, which will be 281, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. If you want to get that ready in your songbooks, 281. If you did not get a bulletin, go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers can get one for you. Important information on there. Of course, our Sunday morning service is at 10 30, Sunday evening at 5 p.m., and then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. Currently going through the book of Matthew and so hope to see you on Thursdays for that. You see there we are a family integrated church and so infants and children are always welcome in the service, but for your convenience, the mother baby room is located in the back of the building should your child need some diversion. Changing table speakers and screens are available there so you can still tune into the preaching and come in at your discretion. And then you see there the soul winning times and teams. If you'd like to learn how to soul win, you can see me after the service to be placed on a team. We can teach you how to share your faith, how to preach the gospel, how to soul win, how to lead your family and friends to the Lord. And then you see the list of expecting mothers there at the bottom. Please continue to pray for them. And then the important reminders there. Look up look on the right there. Our men's prayer night is this Friday, September 1st. It'll be at 7 p.m. at the church building. Dinner will be provided for all the men who come. Want to encourage the men to bring your sons to pray with you. Of course, we'll have a list of prayer requests. And so hope to see you then. And then the T.J. soul winning is on Monday, September 11th. Want to encourage all Spanish speakers who can preach the gospel in Spanish to participate in that. It's a very fruitful area. And so you do need your passport. And if you need details on that, you can see brother Ulysses. But we'll be leaving approximately around nine o'clock on that Monday. And we're looking forward to a great day there and T.J. preaching the gospel there. And there we're just going to go to the park. And so we might go to some apartments, but it's been really fruitful in the park there. And so we spent about three hours the last time we went there. And we had four soul winners. So we got a lot of people saved. So hope to see some soul winners there. And then on Sunday, September 17th is our sixth year anniversary service. We'll give you more details as we approach that date. No food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. Please make sure that you are not loitering in the four year fellowship hall during the preaching service. Of course, quiet time is this afternoon from 3 p.m. to 4 15. And that'll be throughout the whole building. The lights will be turned off. Want to encourage you to get some rest before Sunday night. And then lastly, please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. And that is it. Let's go and sing our next song. 281. Song number 281, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. All together on that first verse. Pass me not, O gentle Savior. Hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Let me at a throne of mercy find a sweet relief. Kneeling there in deep contrition, help my unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Trusting only in Thy merit, would I seek Thy face. Heal my wounded, broken spirit. Save me by Thy grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort, whom have I on earth beside Thee, whom in heaven but Thee. Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Amen. Wonderful singing at this time. The ushers will come forth to receive the offering. You can turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter number 28. The Bible reads, In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. Behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it. And his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow. For fear of him, the keepers did shake and became his dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here, for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead. Behold, he goeth before you into Galilee. There you shall see him. Lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, and did run to bring his disciples word. 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. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid, go, tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me. Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and showed unto the chief priests all things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, and taking counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, saying, Say ye his disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught. And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. 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 am with you all the way, even unto the end of the world. Amen. The Lord God, we thank you for this day, for this opportunity to assemble here, to hear your word preached. Just ask that you would fill a pastime here with your Holy Spirit now. And please just prepare our hearts to take you to the message that he's prepared, and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Matthew chapter 28 this morning, and the title of my sermon is evangelize, baptize, discipleize, evangelize, baptize, discipleize. And this is actually, this title is taken straight from one of our soul-willing lessons that we give throughout the year when we are teaching our people how to preach the gospel and training them how to share their faith. This morning's sermon is evangelize, baptize, and discipleize. And I'm getting to hear from Matthew chapter 28, where it says in 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 am with you always, even into the end of the world. Amen. Now this is what we would commonly refer to as the Great Commission, okay. And it's great in the sense that the task is considerably large. If you think about it, Jesus Christ is telling his disciples, go and teach all nations. And this is back in the first century AD, where there's no airplanes, there's no Instagram or Facebook or internet by which you can preach the gospel to someone across the world. All of this has to be done on foot. And so obviously it's a considerably large task for the disciples that they have to go into all the world. These 12 disciples go into all the world and evangelize, preach the gospel and get people saved. And so obviously it was a difficult task for them initially. But hey, here we are now, right? So obviously the disciples did a fantastic job. And they proved to us today that this task is possible to accomplish. And the proof is this is that we're here, a bunch of Gentiles who got saved. And obviously it's because of the work of many people throughout the centuries leading back all the way to these Jews who got saved and obeyed the Lord in this Great Commission. And so the work is colossal. And let me just say this is that although Jesus Christ is telling the disciples this, he's saying go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. This is applicable to us. We never want to take this interpretation where it's just like, well, this is only written to the disciples. We need to make sure that we interpret this in the correct way and realize who this is actually speaking to. Well, newsflash, we're disciples. And so whatever is said unto the disciples, obviously save, you know, the enabling of the casting out of devils and healing and whatnot, you know, whatever else is said to the disciples, we can apply to ourselves today. You say, well, you know, I think I'm gonna also apply some of that healing and casting out of devils. Well, let's see if you can do that. You know, let me go ahead and throw a black mama at you and see how well you fare with that, right? Obviously, that proves that we do not have those apostolic abilities, you know, in that, you know, it's interesting that people out there want to believe that that still exists, but, you know, they often weigh in heavily on the healing of it because, you know, that's easy to kind of fake, right? But when it comes to actually, you know, picking up some random rattlesnake or something like that or drinking something that's deadly, you know, they don't necessarily partake of that because obviously that would prove that they're phonies and fakes. Now go with me if you went to Mark 16, then we're going to go to Luke 24. Mark 16 and then Luke 24. We're going to cover some of these commissions that God gave because here in Matthew 28 is just one instance in which Jesus Christ commissioned his disciples. This is not just one isolated incident where it's just like well he said it once and that was it. There's multiple times where after the resurrection he came to the disciples and said go and evangelize, go and preach the gospel, go and teach all nations. Look at Mark 16 and verse 15 it says, and he said unto them go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth in his baptize shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned. So obviously we see somewhat of a a consolidated version of Matthew 28 here in Mark 16 and he says there to preach the gospel to every creature. This isn't referring to like preaching the gospel to animals or something. Creature just means creation and specifically it's referring to man. The creation of man that they need the gospel. Go to Luke 24 if you would. Luke chapter 24. Luke 24 and verse 46 he says something similar. It says in verse 46 and he said unto them thus it is written verse 46 and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem and you are witnesses of these things. Now I want you to notice in verse 47 it doesn't say repentance of sins should be preached but rather repentance and remission of sins should be preached. Why? Because the repentance here in this particular context when dealing with the gospel is simply referring to someone changing their mind about what they're trusting in for salvation and placing it on Jesus Christ which in turn results in what? The remission of sins. So repentance of you know turning from your dead works your faith in your dead works and placing your faith in Jesus Christ will result in you being forgiven of all sins past present and future. This is essentially the great commission that's being preached here. He says that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name again among all nations. He says beginning at Jerusalem. Go to Acts chapter one if you would. Acts chapter one. So one common denominator that we see with all of these particular passages dealing with the great commission is that he wants us to go into all nations and he specifies where to begin in Luke 24. He says start in Jerusalem okay and then he kind of reiterates this in Acts chapter one because Luke is the writer of the book of Acts as well the human author of the book of Acts is Luke and it's kind of essentially you know like like a follow-up to the book of Luke it says there in verse number seven and he said unto them it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the father hath put in his own power but ye shall receive power after that the holy ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and into the uttermost parts of the earth. So he says here that once they're endowed with power of the holy ghost once they're spirit filled at that point they are enabled to go and be a witness in other words to be a soul winner a preacher of the gospel in these particular areas and he says there start off in Jerusalem which is pretty obvious right start off where you live start off where you grew up start off where your where your base is and then essentially work your way out he says in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and then of course ultimately the uttermost parts of the earth. Now as I mentioned in the beginning of the sermon go to John 21 if you would John chapter 21 that the great commission is something that was given to the disciples but it's also for us and here we see the very clear distinction and instruction to evangelize then you baptize and then you discipleize now I know that that's not a word okay I don't need anybody coming to me after the service a pastor I don't know if you know this you know I'm trying to like make it so that you'll remember it okay so you evangelize in other words you teach all nations you preach the gospel to every creature and what do you do after that you just that's it is that the work done no you baptize them okay and after you baptize them then you disciple them meaning you teach them all things whatsoever God has commanded them this is a great task for us to accomplish and here's a perfect place to do which is in your local new testament church now look at John 21 because we looked at all the gospels in which the great commission is being put forth and he's and where Jesus Christ is talking about it but the book of John doesn't necessarily have a really clear you know great commission statement per se okay however what he tells Peter here is essentially part of that great commission because he says there in verse 15 so when they had dined Jesus saith to Simon Peter Simon son of Jonas loveth thou me more than these he saith unto him Lord thou knowest that I love thee he saith unto him feed my lambs now Jesus didn't he wasn't like an animal lover or something like that he didn't have like a bunch of pet lambs like hey I'm going to heaven I need someone to care for my lambs while I'm gone he's literally referring to what believers okay he says feed my sheep feed my lambs he's referring to people who are saved okay and the reason he's telling Peter this is because we'll see later on that or later on in the new testament that Peter becomes a pastor and the job of a pastor part of a job of a pastor is to feed the flock of God which are among them feed them with what feed them with the word of God don't feed them with devotionals don't feed them with the quote of the day don't feed them with a bunch of stories and illustrations feed them with the word of God man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceed out of the mouth of God right so that's why he tells them hey if you love me I need you to feed my lambs feed my sheep this is essentially the third aspect of that great commission which means to disciple them okay to teach them all things whatsoever Christ has commanded us now go back to Matthew 28 if you would Matthew 28 because this is where we're going to focus on mainly now here's a mistake that Christians make when interpreting Matthew 28 okay here's a few mistakes that they make one of the mistakes that people make when looking at Matthew 28 the great commission and how it applies to us is that they think the great commission is only about preaching the gospel when that's actually not true okay it's a big part of the gospel and in fact it's the first part of the god excuse me it's a big part of the commission and it's the first part of the commission but it's not the only aspect of the great commission you know we obviously want to preach the gospel and get people saved that's the most important thing but folks we can't stop there okay it's not like we can just preach the gospel and just ignore the other aspects of the great commission you know he's commanded us to baptize them he's commanded us to teach them to disciple them to show them what the word of God says to teach them the ways of the lord and and and move on from there but we can't just preach the gospel and that's it we should obviously put in a considerable effort to move to those next steps this is why when someone gets saved in our church we automatically follow up with all right now it's time for you to get baptized a lot of people they get a little or christians they can get a little iffy about that they're just like i don't know you know asking people to get baptized and being so aggressive about it it's just that you know what if they don't want to then they don't want to i mean what's what's the what's the hurt and you hearing no okay but here's what i've learned is that you always want to strike while the iron is hot and what i mean by that when someone gets saved and they believe on the lord jesus christ and they get converted they're often in a very emotional state of mind because they're happy that they just got saved they learned this brand new truth so it's important to strike while the iron is hot and ask them right then and there you know god has commanded you after this to get baptized we want to capitalize on that okay and you say well you know but what if they start thinking that that has something to do with salvation well then you didn't do a good enough job preaching the gospel to them now did you okay because obviously if you're thorough in your gospel presentation they're going to understand that baptism does not say okay we have plenty of ways to show and plenty of phrases to teach on how you know baptism doesn't save and that you know that's that would be considered a work you said then why would you baptize them if you're not if it doesn't save because god commanded us to and we clearly have to make the distinction and explain to people this has nothing to do with salvation etc but you know in our church once someone gets saved we automatically follow up with hey get baptized you say what happens when they get baptized we record their information and then we encourage them to come back to church because here's the thing when it comes to discipling people a lot of churches have this thing where they just want to do a one-on-one discipleship where literally a service will start and then the discipleship class leaves the main service okay like on a wednesday or thursday evening they'll have discipleship class and what they'll do is that everyone comes to church and then the discipleship group is dismissed during the service to go through a book of discipleship where there's doctrines and philosophies of the church and obviously you know the book as long as it's not teaching any false doctrine it's not bad but you know it's kind of weird that you would want someone to come to church and then leave the church service to go be discipled when they can get the discipleship right here i mean the main tool that god uses or should i say that god instituted for the spiritual growth of a believer is the local new testament church it's the pillar and ground of truth the bible says okay and in fact the bible specifically tells us that he gave some apostles and some prophets and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of christ that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men in cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive so it sounds to me according to the bible that god places a heavy emphasis on a church and its responsibility to disciple people now obviously this is not exclude discipleship one-on-one right it's important that and we'll get into this in just a bit that christians take another christian under their wing and teach them the ways of the lord because of the fact that i can't answer all your questions in one hour right sometimes you'll have a question and you can ask a brother or sister in christ and sometimes a brother or sister in christ in church will tell you some things that you need to hear you know but regarding personal things sometimes you know to kind of help you along the way but i don't want to get ahead of myself in that area you know a lot of christians they just make the mistake that the great commission is only about preaching the gospel that's the most important one that's the first step but it's not the only aspect of the great commission here's another mistake that i see actually more commonly amongst churches and that's this that they think that the great commission listen to this is only about making disciples this is a huge thing amongst churches where they will look at the great commission and say well you know it's not about sowing it's about making disciples okay and let me explain to you why this is not correct okay it's one aspect of the great commission but let me say this is that churches out there will make it their only commission and the problem with that is that when you overly emphasize discipleship in the great commission you begin to convolute the gospel and people begin to mix in getting saved with serving god and obeying god you understand and obeying god you understand because discipleship is serving god discipleship requires your sacrifice discipleship requires your obedience salvation does not what does it require the sacrifice of jesus christ salvation does not require your obedience it requires the obedience of jesus christ according to philippines chapter 2. salvation does not require you serving God okay salvation is something that is freely given to us by God through the blood of Jesus Christ the Bible says for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves but hold on a second discipleship is of yourself so you can't mix the two so when churches emphasize the Great Commission and they emphasize it in a way where it's just only about discipleship then you got an issue you're gonna have a church that is filled with unsafe people and people that are confused about salvation and people that are mixing salvation with discipleship and you're just gonna get a whole lot of false doctrine out of them now why do people get confused regarding this well let me tell you the number one reason why churches overly emphasize discipleship in their Great Commission the number one reason listen to this don't miss it is the modern versions of the Bible that's the main reason why now our church is King James only and it's not something that we just say because it sounds cool although it does it's not something that we just believe in because you know we're just fundamental Baptists although that's part of being a fundamental Baptist it's something that we actually believe to the core and we have evidence as to why we believe that it's the inspired and preserved Word of God for the English-speaking people it's inerrant it's infallible it's without error you know it's evident that it's written by God through the instrument of human authors throughout the span of many hundreds of years and when you compare the King James Bible to these modern versions of the Bible you see that they are inferior versions they have all types of mistakes in them they have all types of false doctrines that they preach but this is not a sermon on the modern versions although I'd like to just segue into that let's just talk about the Great Commission in the modern versions of the Bible let me read to you from the ESV which is probably one of the most popular versions for Christians to use non-denom churches and even some quote Baptist churches will use these this version okay the English standard version claiming that they are the standard for the Bible in English right it says in verse 19 in the ESV go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you and behold I am with you always to the end of the world the NASB which is a favorite of a lot of a lot of Calvinists says go therefore and make disciples of all nations the NIV which is the most commonly bought Bible by Christians not read but bought says in verse 19 go therefore go they changed it a little bit there therefore go now go ye therefore go there therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit now go go to Luke chapter 14 if you would Luke chapter 14 you see folks teaching all nations and making disciples of all nations are two different things they're not the same my friends you say well isn't that the ultimate goal though is to make a disciple out of a person isn't that really the ultimate goal actually the ultimate goal is to get them saved and then along with that to disciple them in all the ways of the Lord okay but here's the problem folks if we get because here here's the argument well you just get people saving just leave them you know you know where are all those people you got saved well they live somewhere here I mean I don't know all their addresses but they're around here somewhere but here's the thing if I get someone saved but I do not disciple them which I don't agree with obviously we need to put in an effort to baptize them and disciple them but if I get someone saved and I don't do those last two things they're still going to heaven however if I do not get them saved but I baptize them and then I disciple them then I lead them to believe that they are saved and then they start serving God so they go through their entire life reading the Bible serving God doing all these works but then they split hell wide open when they die and my friends what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul so here's the thing folks if I have to choose one over the other I choose preaching the gospel getting them saved now luckily we don't necessarily have to choose we can do all three the problem is the people out there who overly emphasize discipleship they exclude the soul winning part and let me say this is that most of these churches even if they were to include the salvation aspect of preaching the gospel probably have a bad gospel anyways not all of them but some of them do okay and so teaching all nations and making disciples are not the same thing look at Luke 14 and verse 26 it says here verse 26 if any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea his own life also he cannot be saved is that what it says no he cannot be my disciple because loyalty as far as obedience to God's commands is not required for salvation and let me prove it to you therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us that's what the Bible says but here it says that 100% loyalty is required of God to be his disciple even to the point that you have to be willing to forsake your family who is against the Bible who's against Jesus Christ who mocks Christianity you know you got to choose your family over that if you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ he says in verse 27 and whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple so here we see that the disciple has to bear his cross to follow Jesus but for salvation Jesus Christ had to bear the cross for us you see how mixing those up can lead to a lot of confusion and this is why a lot of churches out there are always doubting their salvation this is a very common thing in churches and these types of churches that they're always doubting whether they're saved they're just like man I don't know if I'm saved or not and why because when it comes to the discipleship you can never do enough you see we as Christians who are following the Lord we never get to a point where we feel like all right I've arrived you know I'm really a disciple Peter ain't got nothing on me I've never denied the Lord you know we never get to that point it's like an ongoing process and in fact we would often refer to it as the process of sanctification right discipleship is an ongoing process because of the fact that it requires us to love the Lord our God with all our heart soul mind and strength and let me tell you this no no Christian in this world has ever loved the Lord with all their heart soul mind and strength 24 hours a day and if they say they did they're lying because it doesn't work that way my friends you know I would say you know a lot of Christians on Monday morning probably don't love the Lord as much as they should because it's just Monday morning you know Mondays are it's a difficult day okay well you know thank God that that's not required for salvation you know discipleship requires bearing our cross and what is the picture that's being given there is dying to self well we don't have to die to self for salvation because Jesus Christ died for us you see how it's like the antithesis discipleship is the antithesis of salvation and has nothing to do with it okay look at verse 33 so likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple go to John chapter 8 if you would John chapter number 8 John chapter 8 we're looking at verses dealing with being a disciple and if you take the interpretation of the modern versions of the Bible of Matthew 28 you got a big problem on your hands because this is everything you have to do to be saved he said well when it says go and make disciples of all nations it includes salvation yeah but no it doesn't though because the vast majority of people who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation do not serve God the vast majority of them I would say like 85 to 90 percent of people who get saved do not serve the Lord they don't and that's fact okay you say how do you know because if if because it's not easy to serve God and if it was easy everyone would be doing it feels easy we would have hordes and hordes of soul owners out every single Sunday every single week we'd have people just serving God non-stop I mean we I mean because there's a lot of safe people out there okay look at John chapter 8 verse 31 then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him if you continue in my word then are you my disciples indeed so what's another thing that is included with being a disciple of Jesus Christ it's actually continuing in his word meaning you're reading the Bible you're obeying the Word of God you're making it the centerpiece of your life right it requires you reading the Word of God daily and let's just let's just be honest the vast majority of Christians do not read the Bible every single day I would even say that maybe there's people here who probably didn't read their Bibles this morning no amens no amens everyone's all next point please in fact probably the only verse you've read this morning are the verses we're looking at in the sermon I wouldn't put it past some people because it's probably true okay I'm not saying it's right I'm just saying this is the reality of it okay so people are trying to tell me that when it says make disciples of all nations it includes this folks the vast majority of Christians don't even read the Word of God every day they don't know what the Bible says they don't obey the Word of God and so no that's not required for salvation okay go to John chapter 15 John chapter 15 when the Bible talks about teaching all nations we know based upon comparing Scripture with Scripture the teaching means to evangelize them teaching means to preach the gospel to them we know that when we compare the great commissions in all the Gospels but just outside of the Gospels you can see based upon other scriptures that the Bible commonly used or teach in reference or in context of teaching someone how to get saved because when you're preaching the Gospels with someone it's not like you need to get saved you're not like yelling at them you know teaching is just like showing them from the scriptures that they are sinners and deserving of hell that Jesus Christ paid for their sins on the cross and resurrected the third day that if they believe on him for their salvation they can be saved and then they can never lose their salvation but we have to teach them these things especially if they never heard it to begin with look at John 15 verse 7 it says if you abide in me and my words abide in you you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you here in is my father glorified that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my disciples so according to the Bible part of being a disciples what bearing fruit which means getting other people saved discipling other people now let me ask you do you think the majority of Christians know how to get people saved they don't even know how to share their faith I'm not slamming them because we were all there at one point right that's completely normal there's nothing wrong about that what's wrong is if you just decide to stay there knowing that you should be preaching the gospel right but none of that just bearing fruit in general okay being a fruitful Christian in a sense that you're succeeding the Christian life and obeying the Lord's commands being a blessing in your local New Testament Church being an asset in your church doing good to your brethren obeying the Lord and and and abounding in the virtues of God okay this is something that can be considered to be fruitful but the vast majority of Christians don't do that so you see all these requirements to be a disciples a lot requires a lot of it requires discipline you know disciple it requires commitment it requires sacrifice it requires reading the Bible daily it requires learning how to soul win it requires for you to draw the line of loyalty between your friends your family and God I mean it requires a lot and so when you look at these modern versions that say go and make disciples of all nations and then you go to these verses which you know the modern versions don't change these parts then you can see how people can get confused with that and think to the end and wonder why you know they might think to themselves man I wonder if I'm saved because I don't know if I read enough today I don't know if I'm being fruitful enough I don't know if I'm as loyal to Jesus Christ today as I was yesterday I don't know you know it's just like where does it end so that's why when you go to these churches you often run into people who don't know if they're saved you run into people who can't tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're going to heaven and if they do tell you oh yeah I'm saved for sure and you ask them what must I do to be saved they're like be a disciple follow God obey his word they give you all these works that you have to do and then you can obviously delve in and say well how much work as much as you how much Bible as much as you read how much do you love the Lord okay so you know it's there's never a definitive answer to that whereas when it comes to salvation is definitive believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved how much do you believe in him just the Bible says with your heart that's it whatever belief you have just place it on Jesus Christ as long as you're not placing your faith in anything else outside of that and you're exclusively trusting in Christ for salvation you're saved yeah but how much are you trusting in him that's navel-gazing okay the Bible talks about the simplicity which is in Christ which means don't make it complicated God says trust in Jesus for your salvation and then here's the thing is that sometimes churches and specifically fundamental Baptist churches unfortunately they'll buy into this little false doctrine and philosophy because they get really discouraged over the fact that they get a lot of people saved but not a lot of people come to their church and so people start infiltrating and telling them well you know maybe brother those people weren't even safe to begin with they went out from us for they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have no doubt continued with us but that's not referring to salvation that's not excuse me that's not referring to a Christian who got saved and then backslid it's referring to someone who went apostate more specifically in context is actually referring to Judas who was a fake believer okay he believed in vain meaning he never actually believed to begin with and then of course he you know became he betrayed the Lord and sometimes people come to church and they play the part but then they go and become a Mormon like you're not saved you were never saved to begin with you know they come to our church and they get baptized they claim to profess Christ as their Savior and they claim to believe all these right doctrines but then they go to the Catholic Church and they're just like you know my beliefs are more in line with the Catholic Church than this church okay so you're just not saved then you just you never got saved you went apostate doesn't mean you lost your salvation it means you never say you never got saved to begin with that's obviously a different situation but just because someone gets saved and then they come to church and then they backslide they go into the world doesn't mean they're not saved you know what it means it means that they're a weak Christian it means that they gave themselves over to their carnality to the fleshly desires of their heart that's what it means it means that they're not reading the Word of God as much as they should they're not feeding the spirit they're not walking in the spirits and not fulfill the lust of the flesh and therefore they're back out in the world doing whatever okay and so we see here that it's important that we understand what teach all nations means which means to evangelize mean means to soul one you see you keep saying so and what does that mean so one means you win souls to Christ it's a biblical term found in Proverbs chapter 11 verse 30 the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that win its souls is wise okay when we go on and preach the gospel the reason we say we're so winning because that's literally what we're doing we're winning souls to Christ right by getting them saved and so forth and so what came first the chicken or the egg the chicken you know the these modern versions places the egg at the beginning of the Great Commission it's like oh we gotta make disciples no we need the chicken first we got to get a chicken first then the chicken can lay the egg so teach all nations meaning our job is to essentially and you can you can interpret this to say teach all nations in that you know go to the utmost parts of the world or teach all ethnicities right teach people of different nations meaning the gospel should not be you should not be a respecter of people when it comes to the gospel preach to everyone red and yellow black and white they are all precious in his sight never have this idea well I only want to reach one people group I only want to reach white people you know I only want to reach Mexicans I only want to reach black people them's is my people I only want to reach Asians I only want to reach Chinese and Vietnamese and I only want my people group no according to the Bible we should be reaching everyone because in God's eyes he doesn't care what skin color you are because you still bleed red like everyone else does and you have a soul that will die and go to hell if you don't get saved regardless of your of your skin color you know and so you know we live in a world where they overly emphasize skin color and really if you look at our church I mean we have a pretty mixed group here okay all types of people from different backgrounds and you say what do you guys have in common because you guys got Asians in here you got a bunch of Mexicans in here you got you got the minorities in here you got the white people you know they're in here what do you guys have in common I'll tell you what we have in common Christ we have Christ in common that's why we get along so well and so teach all nations this is a command to us to go and preach the gospel you know and here's the thing is that our church we could either tell you all right go preach the gospel your responsibility but really the church is supposed to send you out to go preach the gospel this is why our church heavily emphasizes soul winning times we're called first works Baptist Church because the first works is solely okay doesn't mean we don't emphasize anything else we obviously talk about the family and and we go into you know systematic doctrine in our church but as far as practical living is concerned the responsibility of a Christian we're out there we're supposed to go out there and preach the gospel we have so many times throughout the week where we equip believers on how to preach the gospel and don't get this misconception is just like man that seems so scary though you guys go to complete strangers and tell them that they're sinners and deserving of hell and all yeah we do now you don't have to do that off the bat though in fact we don't encourage that at all because someone who's not equipped and preaching the gospel they might you know they might mess up they might say something weird you know and so it's better what we have we have a system here as the Bible would say we have an administration an operation where we have different groups in our church different teams that we place you on and the leader of that particular team literally disciples you in becoming a soul winner for months so you go with them you listen to how they do it they knock on the door they get cussed out at they you he you get to you get to watch it all life like whoa that guy let you have it you get to see him get embarrassed and all you know get the door slammed in his face doesn't happen very often but you know you get to see him preach the gospel and get people saved you get to see how it's done and then at the end of a couple months when you've learned you've memorized the verses you got your soul winning Bible then you start getting the the itch we're just like you know I think I can do this I think I can do this and then you start weaning yourself on to preach in the gospel and before you know it within a year's time maybe even less you can actually become a bona fide soul winner where you're not only winning strangers to the Lord at the door boldly but guess what now you can win your friends to the Lord now you can win your family members to the Lord now when you go home and you talk to your brother and sister it's not like you're fumbling over what to say on how to get them saved now it's just like let me show you what the Bible says on how you can get saved at this moment right now you know what there's nothing more that people like who are unsaved than a confident soul winner my friends someone who knows beyond a shadow of a doubt you know when they went into people and they're just kind of like fumbling they don't really know it's just like this guy what are you Jehovah's Witness or what whereas an actual soul winner who knows what they're talking about we have something that no one else has who's not saved and that is what the Holy Spirit we can open our mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel okay in other words we can literally just go there open up our Bibles and it's just like I can show you give me 10 minutes give me 15 minutes and I can show you beyond a shadow of a doubt that you're saved today people like that type of confidence because then they're just like okay this guy sounds like he actually knows what he's talking about you know and so let's teach our nations let's reach people with the gospel join one of our teams in our church stop being so scared it's gonna be okay it's a lot of fun okay it's there's a lot of joy involved and you know what the greatest thing about it is aside from the fact that people get saved is that you get rewarded for it not for me we don't give her words here for that okay but you get eternal rewards for it though and then you look back a year in a year spent you're like wow I've won so many people to Christ I was able to give my mom the gospel I was able to give my my uncle the gospel my cousin got saved and then it's just like the salvation is just start piling up and then you know what happens you just become better at preaching the gospel you become a better soul winner you become apt to teach okay one of the greatest joys of a Christian is to get someone saved I've been saved I'm going on 17 years of being saved and you know what I still haven't gone over it when I go out and preach the gospel sometimes it's just like it's out of duty because I've done it for so long but when I get into it and I'm warming up and then the person is getting it just like there's a swelling joy that comes up in my heart over the fact that this person got saved because the gospel never gets old getting people saved never gets old and I've learned that when you are sizzling out in the Christian life you're burning on a little bit one of the best things to do to reignite that flame for Christ and for the service of Christ is to go soul winning you go there start getting people say then you're reminded of what your true purpose is in this life hey let me just remind you your true purpose is not to be a Christian Instagram influencer it's not your true purpose in life you know your true purpose is to get a bunch of people saved you know one of the greatest ways you can glorify God is to bear much fruit by getting people saved it's a great thing so the first one there is to evangelize go to 2nd Timothy chapter 2 2nd Timothy chapter 2 and then we're gonna go to Acts chapter 8 2nd Timothy chapter 2 then Acts chapter 8 you say you said it so many but you also say evangelize why do you say evangelize well in Spanish the way you say the gospel is evangelismo okay and you think of the biblical office of an evangelist it's a person who goes on and preaches the gospel and so when we talk about evangelizing that's what we're doing we're going out and giving the gospel that is essentially what the word means look at 2nd Timothy 2 24 it says in the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient so this rules out the street preacher by the way which by the way when we say we're going out there and preaching the gospel we're not talking about street preaching so leave your blowhorns at home and your huge signs of turn or burn we don't use that stuff here okay you're like why don't you put a sign over you and and you know the little what was that called the sandwich sign you can hold folks you know what the Bible says ye are our epistles written in our hearts known in red of all men you know we don't need signs to show what we believe we are the sign right we are the epistles of Christ going out to preach the gospel and so you know these street preachers they just all they do is just tick people off you know you just kind of like don't want to look at them when you're in the car you're like at the corner he's like his light just turned green already because it's just a young at you know and then man I mean what if you get like a Pentecostal one too oh hey here's something worse a Spanish Pentecostal and you're just like what is this an auction or is this a jack-in-the-box drive-through you know anything like or a blend of both that gets nothing done my friends yeah and in fact it says that you shouldn't strive street preachers what they do is they strive with people they want to debate people they want to argue with people they want to fight with people the Bible says to be gentle to all men so when we approach people at the door face to face you know what we do we are gentle among them we are kind with them you're like well you're not very gentle right now well right now I'm not preaching the gospel right now I'm preaching to believers and and this is nothing compared to some of my other sermons like nothing okay this is very a very kind sermon this is what we call an extra tative sermon where I'm edifying the brethren okay there's other sermons that yeah the Bible doesn't require for us to be gentle when we're preaching here behind the pulpit because the Bible says to cry out loud and spare not and show my people their transgression since the rebuke to to the Bible says preach the word be instant in season out of season were approved rebuke and exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine however when we're out there preaching the gospel we need to be gentle because they're unsaved I'm assuming everyone here is a safe person okay they're a believer and you came to church so you have you have to expect to hear the Word of God being preached okay so he says be gentle unto all men apt to teach in meekness and instructing those that oppose themselves if God prayer adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taking captive by him at his will so again verse 24 tells us that we need to be apt to teach apt to teach what the gospel and part of that is helping them to overcome false ideologies you know when you're at the door you're giving the gospel people are gonna ask questions and you know sometimes you'll get a question you're just like I don't know actually which is good because if you don't know you go back and you learn and you study and then you go back you're like well when someone hits me with that question again I'm gonna know what to answer them I'm gonna know what verse to go to so you see how sowing actually makes you wiser that's why the Bible says he that win its souls is wise because the more you go out there the more scenarios people are gonna give you the more false doctrines you're gonna hear that you've never heard before and it's gonna cause you to go back and study the Word of God and you'll just become more wiser because of it okay now go to Acts chapter 8 Acts chapter 8 so the first part of the Great Commission is to evangelize we have that after church this morning we have it on Tuesdays Wednesdays Thursdays Saturdays just different days where people and groups go out and preach the gospel that's literally what they do is they go out and get people saved that's our main responsibility okay now the next one is to baptize now obviously it's kind of difficult when you're at the door to encourage someone to get baptized because first and foremost according to the Bible only an ordained person should baptize okay so it's not just anybody can baptize it's just like don't worry I'm a soul winner I know what I've done this before and I know what I'm doing obviously an ordained minister has to be the one instituting the baptism which would require for people to actually come to church okay and so you say well you know what if I'm at the door and they want to get baptized call me up we'll fill up the tub and we'll get them baptized right then and there I mean that rarely happens but we've had instances where that has taken place I think brother Marcus and I don't remember who it was who else it was but we're in Omani and we got a group of teenagers saved I think it was like three or four teenagers they got saved it was like a Saturday they're really open to the gospel they got saved and they were like yeah you have to get baptized and they're like all right let's do it we're like oh man they called our bluff and we're just like all right so we had we walked all the way back to the church and we told them like we're good we have to fill it up still so you know you mind hanging out they're like we don't mind so we filled up the the the horse trough no heater okay back in those days there was no heater in the and now we have the heater for this bougie church okay back then it was just ice cold water how many got baptized in the ice cold water okay many of you did okay you know we had the ice cold water and you know and they all got baptized so then we filled it up they all got baptized and then we had pizza afterwards I'm like let's just hang out with the believers I guess you know they're new Christians you know so it's happened and you know what if I'm in close proximity I have no problem with baptizing someone but you know a better way to do is just bring them to church on Sunday because if you bring them to church on Sunday to get baptized and then they can meet other believers make friends at church and you know live happily ever after okay look at verse 26 we have an example here it says in the angel the Lord spake unto Philip saying arise go to excuse me and go toward the south unto the way that goes down to Jerusalem unto Gaza which is desert and he rose and went to behold a man of Ethiopia and eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for to worship so this Ethiopian man has for whatever reason somehow have he's heard of the God of Israel right and he wants to come to worship but he's not saved so he's a person who obviously is looking for the truth says in verse 28 was returning and sitting in his chariot read as I is the prophet so he comes and I guess no one in Jerusalem witnessed him you know he's just there and no one gave him the gospel so he probably just purchased himself a copy of the book of his eyes I don't know if they had it they had multiple copies there or something but he came back with a copy of a portion of the book of his eyes okay it's like as if you know maybe he got a track or something verse 29 says then the spirit said unto Philip go near and join thyself to this chariot and Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet his eyes and said understand us without read us and he said how can I accept some man should guide me now what's interesting here is that he reads the we'll call it the gospel track okay and he didn't get saved why because the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can you know them for their spiritually discerned you see that's the important role that you play in this world because unsaved people can't get themselves saved by just reading the Bible because they don't have the Holy Spirit of truth abiding within them what's needed is you which is why he says like how can I understand if except some man should guide me he says in verse number 31 and he said how can I accept some man should guide me and he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him in the place of the scripture which he read was this he was led as the sheep to the slaughter and like a lamb done before her shearer so he opened out his mouth and in this humiliation his judgment was taken away and who shall declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth and the eunuch answered Philip and said I pray thee of whom speak at the Prophet this of himself or of some other man then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus and as they went on their way they came into a certain water and the eunuch said see here's water what doth hinder me to be baptized so I'm assuming that when the Ethiopian eunuch went to Jerusalem he probably saw people getting baptized because somehow he knew about baptism but he didn't know why they were getting baptized he probably just saw it's something that believers do so he's like well here's water like what's gonna hinder me from being baptized like these believers who were in Jerusalem 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 he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down both into the water both Philip and the eunuch and he baptized him now back to the modern versions of the Bible verse 37 is removed from the modern versions of the Bible which is to believe with all thine heart so the modern versions and some of them might leave them in but then they'll have a footnote and say that this is not necessarily authoritative or this wasn't in the originals so what the modern versions do is what does it mean to be baptized and then he goes and he baptizes him whereas the King James shows us scripturally compared with other scriptures that he has to believe first and then he can be baptized so what do we learn here salvation precedes baptism okay and secondly baptism can't save you believing on Jesus Christ saves you okay you're like well you know I think it's important to get baptized so do we yeah but I think it has maybe something to do with salvation has nothing to do with salvation all it does all it is is a symbol first and foremost and here's the thing folks is that it's ridiculous to think that baptism can save you because it's just water it can't cleanse the soul it barely even cleans the body right but not only that we have portions of scripture that clearly distinctly tell us that the gospel is what saves us and in the same statement he says the Apostle Paul saying speaking of baptism he says I thank God that I baptized none of you and then he talks about preaching the gospel he says Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel so if the gospel saves us and he's thanking God that God didn't send them to baptize then obviously baptism and getting someone saved are two separate things understand so baptism cannot save you it does nothing for you spiritually it's our first step of obedience okay it's supposed to picture the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ which by the way is the reason why when we baptize someone we don't just sprinkle water over their head you know Jesus head wasn't the only thing that went into the grave he went fully into the sepulcher and fully out so when we baptize baptism literally means immersion to immerse someone in the water and bring them completely out buried it in the likeness of his death as we say raised in the likeness of his resurrection okay and let me say this regarding baptism if you've if you've gotten saved and have not yet been baptized you need to get baptized today there's no reason why people wait on getting baptized like well shouldn't I take a class there's no you know the Ethiopian eunuch the Ethiopian eunuch did not take any class he didn't take an eight-week class and it's just like you know the temperature of the water and you have to learn these doctrines before he just says the only requirement is for you to be saved and that's it so if you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ if you have been saved if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior your next step is baptism that's what should be done and honestly there should be no reason why people don't get baptized you know it's not gonna kill you you know I mean because people often wonder like what's people's deal with baptism you know but really what it is is in the minds of a lot of people it's like a commitment that they're making because it is the first step of obedience it's saying you know what I want to obey the Lord in believers baptism I want to identify with this death barrow and resurrection and so that does say a lot but folks just do it you know when I got saved I made the mistake of waiting like a couple weeks before I got baptized and the only reason I waited a couple weeks is because you know my family kept saying well we need to be there when you get baptized so I was just like well I kind of want to get baptized already so this Sunday but then it didn't come on Sunday and then it's just like well we have a work we gotta wait for your brother and your sister to come and everyone has to because to them it was just like like a Catholic thing you know like the Catholics is like all the family has to be there or something and I regret that I mean I ended up getting baptized but honestly I regret it because at the end of the day you know I should have gotten baptized as soon as I got saved okay and so it's important that if you've already been saved that you follow the Lord and believers baptism do not stunt your spiritual growth because you refuse to be baptized and that happens to Christians I've noticed that sometimes Christians because they don't get baptized they're kind of stunted in their knowledge of God's Word because how much further can you move into the Christian life when you're just not willing to obey the Lord and the first commandment that he gives you after salvation I mean what does that say about your Christian life think about that for a minute and it's just like well I'm a little embarrassed you know or I just want so-and-so to be here folks throw that out the window just get baptized that's what God commanded you to do and don't be this type of person that says you know well I still think obey the Lord in other areas and still grow on my knowledge of God's Word and not be baptized but then you're gonna read some other things in the Bible that require more of a commitment from you so how are you gonna keep the greater commitments in the Bible when you can't even keep the most basic of commitment which is just to get baptized it doesn't even require any sacrifice on your end you're just that's it sit down in that jacuzzi water you tell me your name you plug your nose you go in the water you come out of the water we all clap for you dry off and you go on your merry way it's not hard my friends and it's weird to go to a Baptist Church and not want to be baptized I mean that's basically why we call ourselves Baptists it's because we emphasize baptism after salvation and we fully immerse people okay and here's the thing if you don't want to be baptized are you really a Baptist or do you just like coming to a Baptist Church because of the preaching well part of being a Baptist is getting baptized it's crazy I have to even like emphasize that but hey it's fact I know there's people who just don't want to get baptized sometimes and and I get it but I don't get it because it's a very easy commandment it's not like God starting you off on something hard it's like all right after salvation read this in one day he didn't give us some insurmountable task immediately after salvation what do you tell us just get baptized identify with Christ his death baron resurrection all right go to 2nd Timothy chapter 2 so we evangelize here's the mission of our church we evangelize how do we do this by going door-to-door in our Jerusalem going out to Judea we go to Samaria TJ we go to the uttermost parts of the earth which is what Belize that's what our church is focusing on right September 11th we're going to Tijuana you know we typically saw one in Anaheim which is would consider our Jerusalem Judea would be maybe Santa Ana Los Angeles Samaria would be TJ and the uttermost parts of the world can be Belize which we're gonna go to in November to go witness to people get people say possibly start a church there you know however the Lord leads this is how we fulfill this command to evangelize and teach all nations okay and by the way in November when we go to Belize I want to baptize a bunch of people there so we need to make plans brother Ulysses to have a tub there you know to baptize all those Belizeans for that service you know because that's part of the Commission he said why are you having a service there so we can teach them all things whatsoever God has commanded them we're trying to still follow through with this great Commission but after that you know we baptized and then we got to teach them which is the second the third point disciple eyes meaning teach him to observe all things this is everything under the canopy of Christianity this is why it's important that we get them here Sunday morning Sunday night Thursday night because there's a lot we got to go over we got to preach on doctrine we have to preach on the family we have to preach on marriage we have to preach on child rearing we have to preach on how to be a good employee we got to preach on how to be a good boss we have to preach on the practicalities of the Christian life and we have to teach on and preach on different people in the Bible so to grow in your knowledge of the Bible and then on Thursday nights what do we have we have Bible study where we study the book of Matthew we go first by verse I mean this church is a discipling church this is what we do and even outside of that you have people working with you one-on-one teaching you the Bible if you have questions you can ask them this is what discipleship is look at second Timothy chapter 2 verse number 1 thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also and here's the thing this is why I'm not really for those discipleship booklets that these churches often promote because a lot of it is just real surface stuff and you're not really going to learn a whole lot you'll learn more in an hour of preaching here than you will in 20 minutes of that discipleship booklet by Paul Chapel that's just true it's fact okay because a lot of that stuff that's being taught in the discipleship booklets is just made to just kind of kill time because here's the thing you know these churches who who promote discipleship you know a major aspect of their discipleship is important which is the relationship aspect because in their minds it's just like well it's important to develop relationships which is true I agree with that 100% you know I think the reason people stay in church is because they develop friendships they get their BFFs here and all their friends and then they they come back they come for the preaching but they stay because of the friends they made so I believe that's a hundred percent true but often they promote that at the exclusion of doctrine so the stuff to learn about is like parking ministry and building program and things that are just nonsensical that just doesn't it's not gonna help you spiritually you need to learn about the Trinity you need to learn about salvation you need to learn about the term justification and sanctification you need to learn about the ministry of the Holy Spirit you need to learn about the different biblical characters in the Bible you say well how am I gonna learn all that by coming to church faithfully because we will cover all that I mean it'll take a long time for sure well like I said discipleship is a lifelong process okay and so the goal is for us to equip ourselves to be soul winners win people to Christ and then we bring the people that we went to Christ to church why so they can be baptized and then once they get baptized we get them integrated and become faithful to church so they can learn the Bible and then when they learn the Bible they hear a sermon on evangelized baptized the cycle eyes and then that person realizes I need to learn how to preach the gospel then we get them on a team to learn how to preach the gospel and then six months from now they learn how to preach the gospel and then they go and win their family to Christ they start going with their team soul winning and then what happens they end up winning someone who they could breathe the church baptized and disciple and the process continues over and over and over and over again now look folks if all we do is evangelize I'm happy with that that's the most important thing get a bunch of people saved but let's get them baptized and disciple them we have the truth we have the Word of God let's teach them and here's my last thing that I want to say if you've never learned how to evangelize you should make the decision today to start learning if you've never been baptized don't go running out of the service I'm not gonna hunt you down by the way okay if you see me approaching I'm just coming to shake your hand I want to shake his hand you know I'm just coming to shake your hand and that's it I'm not coming I might like throw you into the baptism I'm not coming to tell you to get baptized but you should get baptized if you haven't all jokes aside let's get serious here right you need to be baptized and if you've already learned how to evangelize and you've already learned how to baptize people you should do is take someone under your wing to teach them how to do those things as well to teach others also let's pray father we thank you so much for your word thank you for the Great Commission and it is a commandment that never runs out of things to do Lord we can always work on this and I pray that you'd help us as your people as your church may you empower us and fill us with your spirit to continue to win many souls to Christ this year and I pray that we'd see a lot of baptisms as well that people would follow the Lord and believers baptism and that they would grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by coming to church faithfully by getting a Bible and learning how to read it from cover to cover in a year span and just increasing in their knowledge of the Christian life and getting to know you Lord through your word and also just just a fellowshipping with the believers Lord there's so much to do in the Christian life and so I pray that you would bless our church and help us to continue to be successful in this area we love you we thank you pray these things in Jesus name amen please turn your song books a song number 27 song number 27 the old rugged cross song number 27 altogether nice and strong on that first verse on a hill far away stood in old rugged cross the emblem of suffering and shame and I love that old cross where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain so I'll cherish the old rugged cross till my trophies and last I lay down I will clean to the old rugged cross and exchange in some day for a crown oh that old rugged cross so despised by the world as a wondrous attraction for me for the dear Lamb of God left his glory above to bear it to dark albary so I'll share ah till my trophies at last I lay down I will clean to the old rugged cross and exchange in some day for a crown in the old rugged cross stained with blood so divine a wondrous beauty I see what was on that old cross to pardon and sanctify me so I'll cherish the old rugged cross till my trophies at last I lay down I will clean to the old rugged cross and exchange in some day for a crown to the old rugged cross I will ever be true its shame and reproach gladly bear then he'll call me someday to my home far away where his glory forever I'll share so I'll cherish the old rugged cross till my trophies at last I lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange in some day for a crown amen wonderful singing your artist missed