[0:00] Welcome to the Our Generation Summit 2011. It is our prayer that you will be challenged to take part in world evangelism in obedience to the King's command. All right, good morning to everyone. Good morning to those of you that are awake.
[0:12] How many of you are awake? Say amen. Amen. All right. Well, Robert can feel, well, Robert didn't, but Kelly had a baby. This morning at about 5.30. So that's two summit babies in one summit.
[0:28] That's pretty good, isn't it? Amen. And so y'all pray for Robert and Kelly. They're in the hospital there and in our area. And I tried to, I talked to Mark Tolson for almost 30 seconds before the phone quit working wherever he was.
[0:45] But you'd be praying for them as the Lord works in their lives. Now, can I get the guys that have the two hat movies? Can I get somebody to pick those up real quick? How many of y'all, how many of y'all watch the two hat movie?
[0:57] Raise your hand. All right. How many of you believe in world evangelism? Raise your hand. How many of you want to help a way to have a way to promote world evangelism? Raise your hand. Put a DVD in every one of their hands and get $20.
[1:08] How many of you will take one of these DVDs and so you can show it to people and help spread the gospel? I think there are 20 of them for sale. If you take one, hold your hand up right now.
[1:20] If you hold your hand up, these guys will come by. And you're handing them 20 bucks right now. And they'll give you a video. This is a fair exchange. $20 and a video.
[1:31] $20. Hey, I got some guys up here. Come on. Let's keep that moving. There's a guy back there. Good. Hey, I can sell. I'm an auctioneer. Hey, I am an auctioneer. I can't. Right up here on the front row.
[1:42] I got one on the front. One on the front. Here. Here's yours. Take. Give somebody 20 bucks. All right. Now then, can I get the guys that have the camp brochure? Hey, wait a minute.
[1:52] I've got to get rid of all the DVDs. Send Matt out of home poor. Well, rich. I'm making all that money selling them DVDs. By the way, don't you think that it's exciting what you've seen, if you've heard and seen what God's doing in Papua New Guinea and that God is working and God is saving people that never heard, people that have not had a chance to hear the gospel?
[2:14] Isn't that exciting to you? And I think you ought to want to promote that. I believe in the Allens. His dad was in our church. I like his dad better than I like him. And, I mean, that's a good family.
[2:24] That was supposed to be a joke, but nobody got it. But even Brother Matt didn't get it. But because Mother Matt thinks you should like him better than his dad. But they are a great family and doing a great work, and I hope that you'll help.
[2:35] Is there anybody that doesn't have, is there any more videos left? I got two. I got two videos. I need to sell them. All right. I'm going to let these go for $20. I got one back there.
[2:48] I got one back there. I got four videos left. This will not work. Brother Shredder raised his hand. Brother, he already got one. Brother Shredder. Hey, Brother Shredder, you got 10 mysteries out of your church now.
[2:59] You're going to have to buy some videos. All right. If you want a video, I think there may still be some left you can get those. Brother Trent, would you come up here, please? This is the brochure.
[3:12] Does everybody have one now? If you don't have one, hold your hand up. I want you to have one. Would you guys make sure everybody gets at least one? And if you would take a handful to your church and give them out, we have another event.
[3:23] Brother Trent will explain it. It's going to be a wonderful time. Brother Trent is fantastic at organizing and everything that goes on, really, at our church and all these events. And let him tell you a little bit about that.
[3:33] And I hope you'll go ahead and get signed up. All right. How many of you have attended? We got a video going over there. All right. All right. Let's see. How many of you have attended the camp before? One of the Art Generation camps.
[3:45] Would you raise your hand? Wonderful. That means there's plenty in this room that have not come that could come this coming year. May 30th through June the 1st of this year in Dayton, Tennessee.
[3:57] It's two camps for five days for one cause. And that causes world evangelism. And the camp counselors and the speakers are the same men and ladies that you would find here at the summit.
[4:10] It will be a different group because we have the missionaries that are on furlough or on deputation. So there will be some different ones that are at the camp. And I strongly encourage you to come. It's a wonderful camp facility.
[4:20] You have all that you would expect at a traditional camp with sporting tournaments, a big blob, nice cabins. But with the intensity of missions being the theme throughout everything that we're doing.
[4:34] And throughout the year of our generation starting this fall all the way to the next fall, the theme for all of our events will be the King's Command. And pastors and those church leaders that are here, if there's a way we can help you promote the camp at your church, please let us know.
[4:49] We go around and hold one-day summits and one-day camp events in hopes to promote this camp. We've been doing this now as long as we have the summit and God's work each year in it.
[5:02] And there's a track that goes on for college students. That's something unique about the camp. Most camps just have something for middle school and high school. But you can bring your college students as well during the day when the middle school and high school are meeting for their service in the morning.
[5:17] There's special tracks that are going on like the breakout sessions that you're in. So if you're a college-age student interested in getting more training for missions trying to figure out where you fit in, you definitely want to come to this.
[5:29] And then if you're a teenager and you need a camp to go to, I strongly encourage you to come to this. All information you need is online. Our contact information is online after the service today.
[5:41] If you have any questions, please let us know. We're sitting around in my living room in Adiquipa, Peru, if I'm not mistaken. And we were trying our best to figure out where in the world or what more we could do to further the cause of world evangelism.
[5:56] The guys that were sitting around the room with me were all very young college students. And every one of them had a heart and a desire to get the gospel to the world. And Jason Holtz, it was Jason Holtz's idea to hold the summit.
[6:08] He came up with this idea, though he has not always been very faithful at being here. He's been like five years on the field. Where is Jason? Did he show up today? No, he didn't even come. What did I say?
[6:20] But Jason had this idea. And I really don't remember who had the camp idea. I think it was Aaron Bayshore that had the camp idea. And we started the camp. And God has just done a tremendous work.
[6:31] We see missionaries that have come through, been called, are on the field and all over the world carrying the gospel. I really wish you would make it a priority. Our camps and events will never be the most well-attended events because we really don't have a whole lot of hot dog eating contests and a lot of that stuff.
[6:51] We have will you obey the king contests. We have contests. Will you take the gospel message and will you go to the world? And it is our heart's desire and our prayer to God that he would literally have his name preached all over the world and people all over would know about Jesus.
[7:07] And so I hope that you will put that on your calendar. I hope that you'll come. I believe it will be a great camp. I believe God will do a great work in the life of your church and in your people. Everybody in your church ought to be exposed to world evangelism.
[7:20] And to be honest with you, what we've gone over here, what we've gone over here is so extreme, but it ought not be considered extreme by anybody. It ought to be considered norm.
[7:31] And so I would challenge you to talk to some people and help us invite people and help fill up that camp with young people to hear the gospel challenge of taking it to the world.
[7:42] And I hope that you get involved. I'm going to ask Brother Paul Tauby. He is one of the fellows that has finished his training. He is on the verge of being ready to leave to go to the mission field.
[7:54] And he is a fine young man, been helping me a lot. He's taken a long time to put that microphone on. And he is going to come and preach to you this morning. I hope that you'll listen and get a blessing for this message. All right, if you would, go to 2 Corinthians 5 for me.
[8:10] 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I went home for Christmas this week and spent a lot of time with my in-laws. And if you walk into their living room, my wife's father has everything set up for himself.
[8:25] He's got a big old lazy boy right there in the middle of the living room. And he's got his TV tray, his remote big screen TV. And every time in the past, let's see, almost six years, I've heard him say so many times, looks over at me, lets me know, it's good to be king.
[8:44] And he always lets me know this, let me know that I'm not the king. And it's not good to be me. And I have to look up to him. And I have to ask him for anything in his house.
[8:54] And if you're watching TV and he decides he needs to look at the scores of the next game, he's the king. He gets to do that. If you're going out to eat and he wants O'Charlie's, you want Applebee's, guess where you're going?
[9:09] You're going to O'Charlie's because he is the king. I hope we all realize at this summit that Jesus is the king. We've heard so many messages that he is the king.
[9:21] And I don't want us to forget that if he is the king, what does that make us? If he is everything, if he's the Lord, if he's the king, then who are we?
[9:35] In 2 Corinthians 5 here in verse 17, or verse 16, no, I'm sorry, 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.
[9:46] And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. He's letting us know here. We love this verse. We say we're a new creature. We've been bought. We've been renewed.
[9:56] We are new people. And we love that verse saying, you know, we are new. Our old things are passed away. And all things are become new. But we forget that becoming new, we are of God.
[10:09] We belong to him. Everything we are now has come from him. It belongs to him. We are of God. We belong to him. He is the king. When he died on the cross, it was custom to put their sin, what they're getting crucified for, on top of the cross.
[10:24] The only thing they could put is the king of the Jews. Everybody knew he was the king. He had no sin. He was perfect. And we must follow after him. So if he is the king here in 1 Corinthians 5, it says we are of God.
[10:35] We belong to him. We are his. He is everything. He's the king. What does that make us? Verse 11 here. All around verse 17 and 18, we find out what our position is.
[10:45] Verse 11 says, Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Because we know he is the king. Because we know that he is everything. And the terror of the king, if we do not follow him, we are going to persuade men.
[10:59] We are going to say everything we can. We are going to take them to the Bible. We are going to take them to the word of God. We are going to tell them how our life has been changed. Because we know that he is the king. And without the king, people are on their way to hell.
[11:12] People have nothing if they don't have the king. They can't follow anything else. They can't follow themselves. Everything else is going to let them down. So we have to persuade men. We have to give everything we have. We have to give our life to telling people about our king.
[11:25] Because he is the king. And no one can go anywhere without him. Verse 15 says, And that he died for all, that they which live not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.
[11:39] Because he is the king, not only are we persuaders, but because he is the king, we are servants. If you go to 2 Samuel real quick. I'm sorry, 1 Samuel chapter 8 and verse 11.
[11:57] This is Samuel talking to the children of Israel. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you. He will take your sons and appoint them for himself for his chariots and to be his horsemen. And some shall run before his chariots.
[12:08] And he will appoint him captains over thousands and captains over fifties. And he will set them to eat his ground, ear his ground, and to reap his harvest. And to make his instruments of war and instruments of his chariots.
[12:19] And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries and to be cooks and to be bakers. And he will take your fields and your vineyards and your olive trees, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed and of your vineyards and give to his officers and his servants.
[12:33] And so I think we think because we give 10% to God, we're doing a good thing. But here he says, The king just takes 10%. 10% belongs to the king. It's his for his taking. And to impress the king, we're going to have to do much more than that.
[12:47] When we realize that he is king, it makes us nothing. When we realize that he is king, we realize that we are nothing but a slave. We are a servant before him. There can only be one king. In my father-in-law's house, there's only one king, and that's him.
[13:01] And I don't get to make any decisions. I don't get to do anything because he's the king. And the more we realize that God is our king, the more we realize that we are a slave and we are a servant.
[13:12] We are nothing. We are his tools. We are his people to do what he would have for us. We must realize that if he's the king, it makes us servants here.
[13:24] Samuel's telling the children of Israel, If you anoint yourself a king, if you make somebody a king in your life, you are his servant. You belong to him. You are to do his will. And in his will, verse 18, back in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18, All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us a ministry of reconciliation.
[13:49] Verse 20, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. As his servants, as his persuaders, we are ambassadors.
[13:59] We are reconcilers. We are to tell people about our king. It's not about us. It's not about anything we've done. It's all about the king. It's all about what he's done for us.
[14:10] And if we truly believe that he is the king, if we truly believe that he's done everything for us, we have responsibility to go and tell because we know what lies in the people's future that do not believe in him.
[14:24] We must tell other people. It's not about us. It's about our king. And if he is the king, we are servants. We are slaves. We are ambassadors.
[14:35] We are soldiers. We are whatever he wants us to be. We have an exciting new ministry at Vision Baptist Church called Voice of the Villages. And some of you may have already heard about that, where we're going to go to the countries that are so illiterate and so backwards and go beyond where the missionaries are going and take material in there.
[14:55] And missionary Chris Fees is the man that God is using to head that up. And I hope that you'll listen as he brings us this message. All right. There's a famous missionary from the past, missionary and explorer, his name was David Livingston.
[15:11] And he said, he was famous for the statement, he said, if the commission of an earthly king is considered an honor, then how can the commission of a heavenly king be considered a sacrifice?
[15:23] And if you're wondering what it is that we're proposing to you at the summit is that we come to events like this and we come to missions conferences and we hear missionaries preach and we go about missions and world evangelism with asking ourselves the question, should I get involved in world evangelism?
[15:51] Should I or shouldn't I? And we spend time praying about should I, shouldn't I? And the truth is the Bible is clear. If we believe, if we put our trust in Jesus Christ, we've been given that job.
[16:05] And the answer to that question requires no prayer. It is yes, you should be involved. And if you want to write it in your journal, the question you should be asking is how should I get involved?
[16:17] How should I get involved? What is the Lord going to have me to do? And some of you young people are at a pivotal point in your life where you're going to be looking forward. And I hope that you think about this cause of world evangelism and the king's command and say it would be my honor and my privilege to follow the king because we've heard it all the last three days.
[16:39] He is worthy. All right, let's take our Bibles and turn to the one passage that Brother Allen said we hadn't hit on yet. And we're going to hit on it really quick. Mark chapter 16 and verse number 15.
[16:52] Mark 16, 15. And it says in those verses there, And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
[17:03] Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And if you want to underline because what we're talking about in this little sermon here is going to be those words, every creature.
[17:17] That's where the Lord wants us to take it to. That's at the beginning of the New Testament. Let's flash forward all the way to the end of the New Testament in Revelation chapter 5 and verse number 9.
[17:29] It says, And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four and twelve elders fell down before the Lamb, that is Jesus Christ, having every one of them. I think I have, I started verse 8.
[17:40] It should have been verse number 9. Sorry about that. Skip to verse number 9. And it says, And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and open the seals, for thou wast slain and hast redeemed, look at this, us to God by the blood of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.
[18:00] Let me just put it to you this way. From the beginning of time to the end of time, it has been God's desire that every nation, that his name be glorified among every tribe, every nation, every people, that it go to all four corners of the earth.
[18:21] And we think, okay, he wants us to go to every creature except for when the population reaches 7 billion. Then it's too big and we can cut some people out of the picture.
[18:32] No, the truth is the Lord knew the world was going to reach 7 billion. And his command, the king's command, still stays the same. Let me just real quickly, before I finish, let me just put a face on some of those that are mentioned here in this verse of every tribe and every nation.
[18:49] There's the Kosa people in South Africa. And I want you to see the faces of the people around the world. There's the Kosa people in South Africa. I know of one missionary working there, Brother Kevin Hall, and soon to be a second missionary working there.
[19:04] Almost 9 million people and two missionaries. Brother Coffee is going to have 4.5 million people to reach. I think you need some help. And who's going to go?
[19:15] Who's going to reach these people with the gospel of Christ? The Berber people in Morocco. No missionary working there amongst the Berber people. We hope to go there, but would it be you, might it be you that could reach the Berber people with Christ?
[19:29] The Wei people in China. We heard from two Chinese missionaries to China this morning by video and then through prayer. And the Wei people in China, one of the largest countries in the world.
[19:42] And they have people groups there that have no one working amongst them. Who is it that's going to go? These people are in captivity. They're in captivity to sin, death, and hell.
[19:53] And who is going to be the one that will reach them? The Bill people in India. Another extremely large country. Who's going to go? Of the Kurds. This is one of the largest groups of people that's disenfranchised, which means they have no country.
[20:07] They don't identify themselves by country. They identify themselves by people and language. And who's going to be the one that's going to help bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to these people?
[20:19] And then the Sunda people in Indonesia. The largest group of unreached people. That's a subgroup. 32 million people. And there's no missionary there.
[20:30] And sometimes it's easy for us to look at a TV commercial and see the pets and the animals in the Humane Society and say, I'm going to give money to help those pets.
[20:42] Or the kids, the starving kids around the world. And all those are good things to give toward, I guess. I don't know. They may be worthy causes. I don't really know.
[20:53] But all I know is that this is a worthy cause. This is a soul that's going to pass into eternity. If somebody doesn't say, I'm going to be the one to go and to reach those people.
[21:04] And if you look around this room, there's missionaries here that sat where you sat. There are pastors here, your pastor, like Brother Schreeder and Brother Roberts and Brother Trojan, that sat where you sat.
[21:16] And they heard the king's command. And they said, I will obey the king's command. And I will serve the Lord with my life. And lives were changed. Hundreds of people came to know Christ.
[21:28] Maybe even thousands of people represented here coming to know Christ because somebody that you can see here obeyed the king's command. And the question I have for you this morning is if you get down to this point and you say, I'm going to obey the king's command, the decisions you make here may depend on whether or not this person hears the gospel.
[21:49] You may say, I'm going to obey the king's command. And somebody else's spiritual eternity may depend on whether or not you are obedient to the king. So I encourage you this morning, pray about how it is the Lord is going to see you involved in world evangelism.
[22:08] There is a paradox in Christianity. To live, you must die. And to get, you must give. And to have, you must lose.
[22:20] The way up is down. Everything about our God is backwards from the way we think. And over the years, I sometimes feel like I spend my life giving and losing because God has given us wonderful people.
[22:37] I was watching the girls sing, and I love all these young people more than I could ever explain. And they become like family to me and to my family. And I know that every one of them, I will soon lose them somewhere around the world in the mission field.
[22:51] But it's not a loss. It's a gain. It does hurt. It does hurt. Mark Tolson, I talked to just briefly last night and this morning. And I can only tell you how much I love him and how I hurt for him.
[23:05] I talked to Robert Canfield, who's having, they were having their baby. And I can only tell you how much I love these guys. But if you're going to have your church grow, if you pastors are going to do, you know something? Our job is to constantly be bringing them up and getting rid of them.
[23:18] They ought to be going out. And it hurts. And you don't want to lose them. You want to keep them for yourself. But our job is to let them go. The only person, the people that have been with me longer in the ministry are my own sons, I suppose.
[23:33] Because they were raised in our house. The next speaker is Mark Coffey. He's the first young guy that came down to live in our house way back in the dark ages, back I think in 1996.
[23:46] If you will hear him tell it, I still didn't have much of a ministry. But after he got there, it took off. And every good marriage on our team, Mark has put it together. And everything in our team that's ever done well, it has been the ministry of Mark Coffey.
[24:02] You know, we give the guys that leave our ministry, we give all of them a sword. And we say, as your hand, we say, as your sword tasted blood, we give them a sword as a symbol to go out.
[24:13] Or if they've been a mystery a long time and they're a part of our church, we say, and his hand claves the sword. Now, take a sword out with them. And the guys say, because Mark about 15 years ago told me that he would work with me until I died.
[24:27] He would be my right-hand man until I died. I didn't die quick enough. So he is leaving on his way to South Africa. The guys say that when we give him his sword, we will pull it out of my back and hand it to him.
[24:44] Along with 30 pieces of silver. I don't know of a guy I love anymore or a guy I thank God for more. And I hope that you'll listen.
[24:56] Really, much of what happens in our ministry has been a result of Mark's hard work and his heart and his dedication. Amen. That last part wasn't true at all. No, I was.
[25:08] I really had all the plans in the world to stay with Brother Gardner for his whole life. I just didn't think he was going to live this long. So that kind of changed everything.
[25:18] No, but it is. It's a joy to be here. It's a joy to see familiar faces. The faithful pastors have been involved. And thank you so much for bringing your young people. Pastors, we really appreciate you and your hearts.
[25:29] And we're praying, young people, that your lives will be changed this week. It was exciting to see a lot of lives changed last night. Amen. But as I was thinking about it, you know, there was a time in my life where I was really lost.
[25:41] There was a time where, not lost as far as salvation. I was accepted Christ as my Savior when I was six years old. But there was a time where I didn't know where I was going. I didn't know how to get where I was going. I didn't know where I was supposed to go.
[25:52] It reminds me, when I was on deputation, the first time going to the country of Peru, one day I allowed my wife to drive our car, which, you know, can be dangerous sometimes.
[26:06] She'll remind me of that on the way home this weekend. No, but we were on our way to Ohio to a meeting, and I woke up, and we're on the wrong road. And we were lost. We're going in the wrong direction.
[26:17] I woke up, and we were two hours away from the place. We're going in the opposite direction of where we're supposed to be. You know, I hate going in the wrong direction. I hate being lost. One thing I really appreciate, deputation this time around, is having a GPS, where it recalculates you if you get off the road, you know, just the slightest bit.
[26:34] But getting lost, getting in the wrong direction. You know, I can remember as a teenager going down the wrong direction. I remember being in high school and people trying to help you find the right path. Do you guys know what I'm talking about?
[26:46] Guys, you know, you take these aptitude tests to find out what you're supposed to do with your life. You take these tests to think, well, hey, am I going to be a computer programmer? Am I going to be a doctor?
[26:58] What am I going to be? What am I going to do with my life? And we take all these tests to find out what we would enjoy doing. But, you know, it wasn't until I really, I went on a trip before you in 1995, where God really opened my eyes.
[27:12] And he helped me get on the right path and get in the right direction. And that's what I want to talk to you a little bit about today. And turn in your Bibles, if you don't mind, to Colossians chapter 3. You know, so many times we're so consumed about, you know, going in the right direction, but in a direction that's pleasing to ourselves.
[27:31] You know, as I think about the theme this week and I think about, man, you know, we've set up illustrations to point people to our Savior, to point people to worship our King, to point people to worship the Christ that gave all for us.
[27:46] And, you know, and the idea here, you have the soldier who is bowing down the ambassador to the slave. But the whole idea is like, Lord, I want to put everything I have on you.
[27:57] Pastor Gardner on Christmas morning at our church, he preached a message on Mary about how she was a handmaid of the Lord. And, you know, a handmaid of the Lord is just like one of these slaves. You know, the king is sitting here and the handmaid is just right there at his hand and saying, Hey, anything that you want me to do is what I'll do.
[28:15] And they're ready to jump into service. They're ready to say, Hey, I'm ready to do whatever you ask me to do. But, you know, so many times in our life we come to places where we're seeking after something, but it has nothing to do with our Savior.
[28:29] Here in Colossians chapter 3, the Bible says, If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on the things of the earth.
[28:43] You know, as a teenager I was going after, you know, I wanted popularity. I wanted money. As soon as I graduated from college, I had an uncle that was helping me get on the right path to get into real estate to make money.
[28:56] You know, I wanted the prettiest girlfriend. I wanted the prettiest wife. I wanted things that were pleasing to me. But, you know, even growing up in church, I struggled because I knew I was supposed to be a good Christian.
[29:10] I knew that I was supposed to, you know, read my Bible and be faithful to God. But I wasn't setting my affections toward Him. And when I got to Peru and God opened my eyes to the world, He opened my eyes to the mission field, it really felt like a salvation experience.
[29:28] But I really believe that was really the first time in my life where I set my affections on things above. I set my affections on things above. You know, I think last night we had a lot of people make decisions, and they got a directional change in their life where they started setting their things, setting their life on the things above.
[29:47] You know, we can set our lives in a lot of directions. We can try to please a lot of people. But are we setting our lives in the direction to please our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?
[30:00] Are we setting up our lives to say, Hey, when I'm starting in the right direction, and when I get to the end, I'm going to be in the right place, because I started in the right direction. You know, we need to, really, young people, we need to make a decision to get pointed in the right direction.
[30:14] I was 19 years old, and I got pointed in the right direction. And I'm not exactly sure where I'm going to be 15 years from now, but, you know, I'm praying that I stay in that same direction. I pray that I stay where I'm supposed to be.
[30:26] You know, in verse 1 and 2, it talks about seeking things that are above. And verse 2 says, Set your affections on things above. You know, one thing that I realized as I set my direction on things above is that I had a reason to serve our Savior.
[30:44] You know, in chapter 3 and verse 3 and 4, the Bible says, For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.
[30:59] You know, the Bible, you read through the Bible, guys, and God is always making promises to us. And He talks about what He did for us, how He died for us, how we're dead with Him when we're risen again in Christ.
[31:10] It talks about how, you know, we will appear with Him in glory. And He gives us all these promises. And, you know, so many times we think, Well, hey, I need to obey the Bible where I can get something.
[31:22] But we really as Christians need to realize that we need to obey because we already got something. And I don't give to get. I give because I already got something.
[31:33] I serve not because I'm trying to win favor with anybody, but because I've already had favor with someone. And so many times we get all track and we get all focused.
[31:44] I was going to bring King Scott up here to help with the illustration, but I was worried about the structural integrity of this chair. I was going to have him sit on it.
[31:56] But you guys can understand. But, you know, King Scott represented this week our Lord and Savior. You know, it's a bad representation, but, you know, you get the idea. But as our king, we're supposed to follow him and do what he wants us to do with our lives.
[32:12] So many times we take him off the throne and we put other things up there. You know, we put, sometimes we put our parents. Sometimes we put our boss.
[32:25] Sometimes we put our pastor. Sometimes we put our girlfriend or our wife or our family. And we take God off the throne and we put other things up there.
[32:37] And we end up worshiping other things instead of worshiping our Savior. And as we read through the Bible, and we see here in Colossians chapter 3, and Christ did all these things for us.
[32:53] And then we get to verse 5 and it says, Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. And it starts giving us a whole list of things to do. A whole list of, as some people would say, rules to follow here in Colossians chapter 3.
[33:07] But, you know, there aren't rules to follow to get something. God is saying, because I've done all this for you, this is how I want you to live. You know, this is a path that I laid out because I've given you so much.
[33:21] Then we get down and it kind of starts summarizing here in verse 17. It says, And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Give him thanks to God and the Father by him.
[33:33] You know, it says here, Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. What does it mean to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus? Does that mean if I go ride a bicycle and just go up and say, Hey, I'm doing this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[33:49] What does it mean to do it in his name? You know, a lot of times we say we pray in Jesus' name. And when we pray in Jesus' name, all that means that at the end of our prayer, we're supposed to say, In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
[34:01] No, when we're doing things in his name, what it means is that we're doing what we are doing because we have permission from him to do it. We have permission. He's told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
[34:14] So we go in his name because that's what he told us to do. If someone asks you, Why are you going to be a missionary to Timbuktu? Where you're saying, Well, I have permission to do it and I'm doing it in his name.
[34:27] Just think the same thing in prayer. If I pray and some people think, Well, if I pray for a Lamborghini and I say in his name, I'm going to get it. But we're not doing it in his authority.
[34:39] What we need to do is pray for things that we have permission to pray for. It's just like if I went to Brother Roberts and I said, Brother Roberts, I need $100. And he says, Well, why should I give you $100?
[34:51] I said, Well, Miss Roberts told me for you to give me $100. Now, if he went and found out Miss Roberts didn't tell him or tell me to give him $100, I'd be in trouble.
[35:02] I'd probably lose my support because I misrepresented his name. That's what we do a lot of times as Christians. We misrepresent Jesus' name. And it says in verse 17, Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
[35:15] Then it comes and it starts saying things like wives and husbands and children and fathers and servants. In verse 18, it says, Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands. Husbands, love your wives.
[35:26] Children, obey your parents. Fathers, provoke not your children. Servants, obey in all things. And then even in chapter 4, it says, Masters, give unto your servants.
[35:37] But it's amazing as you see this, it tells you why you're supposed to do it. In verse 18, it says, Wives, submit because it's fit in the Lord. Children, obey for this is well-pleasing unto the Lord.
[35:51] Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. Not with I, servants, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord.
[36:03] You know, we don't mind doing things sometimes. Sometimes, you know, we're nice to our wife so we can get something from her. Or we're obedient to our parents because we know Christmas is coming up.
[36:15] Or, you know, we want to go out this weekend with our friends and we're looking for some money. So we'll obey to get something. But are we serving to be pleasing to the Lord?
[36:28] You know, do I love my wife because I want to please the Lord? Or do I love my wife because I want her to treat me right? Guys, are you obeying your parents because you know it's going to turn out better for you?
[36:41] Or are you obeying your parents because you want to please the Lord? And, you know, so many times we look at Jesus Christ. And, you know, we talk about putting other things up there that we're worshiping.
[36:52] But the main problem we have is not really putting other things up there, but putting ourselves up here. And I would sit on this as well just to give you an illustration. But I'm worried about the structural integrity for myself as well.
[37:06] But, you know, the main problem we have in our lives is not really putting other people up there, but it's putting ourselves up there. And we're serving ourselves. The reason why we do what we do is because it's better for us.
[37:19] You know, I'm nice to my wife because it's better for me. You know, I'm obedient to my pastor because that works out well for me. He brags on me.
[37:30] I get special favors. Yeah, you noticed that, didn't you? But why do we do what we do? And sometimes we lift ourselves up and we worship ourselves.
[37:43] And the Bible says here in verse 23, Now, this portion of Scripture is relating to what he said about the servants.
[38:01] And this here in servants is just another word for slave here in Colossians chapter 23. It says, What he was saying is slaves, you, as you're working for your master, realize that you're working for me.
[38:20] It's amazing that he says, You're working in my name as far as to say, I'm going to do this work in the name of Jesus Christ. But you're not only doing it in his name, but you're doing it for him as well. It's kind of like he's paying you to do the job.
[38:33] Plus, he's paying you to do the job for himself. I'm working for him and he's sending me as well. And he gets up here and he says, Servants, when you do a job, remember you're doing it for me.
[38:45] And everything we do, we should be doing it for him. Because we're serving the king. No matter what it is we're doing. And it says in verse 23, Whatsoever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto man.
[38:57] Now this verse 24 is kind of interesting. It says, Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance. You know, it says here that because of what we do for him, We're in the end going to receive the reward.
[39:12] And a lot of times we know, it's nice to know that, Hey, when you do something, you're going to get something back from it. It's nice to know that. But unfortunately, that's not a lot of motivation for us Christians to be serving our God and Savior.
[39:25] What happens is that we look at the reward of Jesus Christ, And we think, you know, really the world has a better reward to offer than what God does. So we serve the world looking for the world's rewards, Instead of willing to work for our Lord and receive his rewards.
[39:45] Because we think the rewards of the world are much more valuable than the rewards of our Lord. Guys, we're looking at our King.
[39:57] So many times we put ourselves up there. But we need to drag ourselves down and realize that he's in a position for a reason. And we need to realize, you know, What are we going to do that's going to matter for a hundred million years from now?
[40:10] What are we working for? We're working for just small trickets. Thinking about, you know, Hey, our house that's going to fade away in 20 or 30 years.
[40:24] Are we working for our car? Are we working for our gadgets? Are we working, thinking, you know, What we get here on earth doesn't matter, But what we get in heaven, that's what really matters.
[40:37] You know, we look and we see that he's given out rewards, But we are not interested in his rewards. We're interested in what the world has to offer. We don't realize that there's a world dying and going to hell.
[40:48] And our Savior is looking at us and saying, Hey, I died for you, so I want you to go and give your life to them. You know, we have places all over the world, There's three and a half billion people that are yet to hear a clear presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[41:03] Three and a half billion people. They've never heard how Jesus Christ came to this earth and died on the cross for us. Yet we still want to live for ourselves.
[41:15] We've got places around the world, we're going to the country of South Africa, 50 million people. Then there's other places, I mean, A few years back, I was traveling with Philip Bassam, And we had the opportunity to visit the country of Kyrgyzstan.
[41:26] 5.9 million people. That I know of, we've got one church planning missionary in that country. When I think of other places, I've had an opportunity to go to places like Russia, Over almost 150 million people in the country of Russia.
[41:46] Who's going to go there? Who's going to say, You know, I'm not really interested in what the world has to offer. I want to live till I get the rewards from our Lord. Guys, we don't have much time left.
[42:00] You know, I'm excited to see that a lot of people last night changed directions in their life. Man, I know Brother Schroeder is excited. Seeing people stand up and say, Hey, I've got pointed in the right direction last night.
[42:12] I was in South Africa when Jeremy Hall made a decision to start going in the right direction. And it's amazing to see where he is today. And I've seen a lot of people in our church get pointed in the right direction.
[42:25] I had a couple last night from our church, Aaron and Anna. They've been going in that direction, But it was just kind of neat to see it last night as they stood up. Saying, Hey, we're being pointed in the right direction.
[42:37] How many tonight, or how many this morning are sitting in their seats, And they are yet to be pointed in the right direction? God wants us to give everything to Him.
[42:48] He wants us to set our affections on things above, not on the things of this world. But we're losing it because we're more concerned with the direction we're going in Instead of being in His direction.
[43:01] So I encourage you this morning, get pointed in the right direction. It changes your life. It will change this world. It will change places around the world that's never heard the gospel.
[43:13] We're wasting time. We need to realize it's now time to change directions. It's now time to go in the direction that God wants us to go in our lives.
[43:24] This event is organized by Baptists Committed to World Evangelism. Committed to training men and women to take part in the King's Command. For more information, log on to www.bcwe.org To find out how you can be involved in the King's Command.