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[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Thank you very much. You can have a seat. I want to ask you to take your Bibles. If you would, turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 8.

[0:13] We will have, I'm going to go through this with you, and then we'll come back and sing and have some reports, and then I'll preach to you again. I'm going to give you two short preachings and talk to you real quickly.

[0:25] The verse that we started out and the theme verse that was used for the summit, is for from you sounded out the Word. For from you. He's talking to one church.

[0:36] Look, this is a letter to the Thessalonians. This is the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians that the Holy Spirit put in the Bible. And he says, for from you, the church of the Thessalonians, sounded out the Word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place.

[0:56] Every place. You guys, one church or group of churches in Thessalonica, maybe the churches of Alpharetta, the churches of North Atlanta, is spread to, but also in every place.

[1:11] Your faith Godward is spread abroad that we need not speak anything. So I would like to quickly go over some things with you that I think are mistakes that hinder all from hearing the Gospel.

[1:22] How many of you want the world to hear the Gospel? Say Amen. How many of you believe God wants everybody to hear the Gospel? Say Amen. I think you probably believe the right thing, but we haven't moved past our belief into practice.

[1:39] And somewhere along the way, you have to line up what you believe with what you do. If you don't line up with that, you're going to be really confused. That's what makes for a whole lot of weekend Christians.

[1:50] They come to church on Sunday. They talk one thing. They live a completely different thing all week long. So the number one thing, the number one mistake I wish you'd look at is this. We know that he wants the Gospel to get to the world.

[2:04] The number one mistake. How's that a mistake? We know he wants the Gospel to get to the world. So I have preached literally a lot of places, a lot of places, a lot of places internationally, a lot of places in the States.

[2:19] If you come to church here, you probably thought, how in the world does he afford to make all those overseas trips? Does Vision pay for it? No, they don't. They don't pay for any of them. I preach around the country.

[2:29] They don't pay the church. I get my paycheck. I get a paycheck once a month. But no, I don't get paid for any of that. I do if I preach somewhere in America. I usually get an honorarium, an offering.

[2:41] I actually do quite well, which is I'm always excited about that. If they want to invite me, I think they're going to give me a good love offer. That doesn't bother me. I'll just be blunt honest with you. That does bother me a bit.

[2:53] Sometimes they don't. But here's a problem. I think everybody knows that God wants everybody to get the Gospel. Here's the problem. We just really aren't sure who he's talking about.

[3:04] When God said he wanted the whole world to get the Gospel, Was he talking to the apostles? And they're dead and it's over. Was he talking to the select few? The righteous rambos?

[3:15] The great ones? The called ones? Was he talking to the early church? Was he talking to anybody but me? Most of us know that God wants the Gospel preached around the world.

[3:29] The great majority of us think, but he ain't talking to me there. It has nothing to do with me that has to do with some special people. You can't ignore the number of times that he gave us the Great Commission.

[3:42] There are too many verses that make it clear that he wants all people to be saved. Miguel, if you've got to speak louder, speak louder. If you need to move chairs further back, you move them further back.

[3:53] Nobody worried about it. Talk loud enough. I want to be able to know what's going on. Okay? Feel free. Miguel's translating into Spanish. I wouldn't mind if he was translating into Chinese over here and Japanese over there. That would be great with me too.

[4:05] I want you to look with me at 1 Timothy 2 and verse 3. I'm going to run you through some verses that I believe you know. Now let me explain something so you'll know where I'm coming from in a theological view.

[4:15] I believe God wants everybody everywhere to be saved. I believe Jesus died for every person everywhere. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 2 verse 3, For this is a good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.

[4:33] What I'm about to say, says Paul to Timothy, is good and acceptable. God likes what I'm about to say. And God says it's good. Verse 4. Who will have, would you read out loud with me, who will have what?

[4:47] All men to be, how many do you want to be saved? He will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there's one God and one mediator between God and men.

[4:59] The man Christ Jesus. Who gave himself a ransom for, what's the number? He gave himself a ransom for what? And Paul said in verse 7, And that's why I was ordained a preacher.

[5:11] Wherefore I am ordained a preacher. An apostle. I speak the truth. I'm not telling you a lie. A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. Or faith and truth.

[5:22] 1 John chapter 2 and verse 2. Look at your Bible. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 2. It'll be behind me here. And he is a propitiation, the sin payment for our sins.

[5:33] But not only for ours. Not for ours only. But also for the sins of the... I didn't hear you. The sins of the whole world.

[5:44] Hebrews chapter 2 verse... Now you guys can't see a thing. That one back there is just gone, isn't it? Amen. You're not old. I just want you to know. Because I thought that for a long time.

[5:54] But it doesn't do any good. It just died. Not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. Look at Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 9. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 9. And the Bible says, We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for...

[6:15] Help me out there. You people here. Taste death for... Every man. The Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 9. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

[6:29] The Bible says in John 3, 16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And I will be honest with you. I don't think the problem at Vision Baptist Church has ever been that you don't think God wants people saved.

[6:45] I think most of you would say, Yeah, I think God wants Chinese people to get saved. I think God wants Indian people from India to get saved. I think God wants Indonesians to get saved. I think God wants everybody to get saved.

[6:56] I think God wants everybody to hear the gospel. Now, not everybody is going to get saved, but he wants us to take the gospel. That's the first problem. The second one is this. We figured that since we are not called, that we're not the ones he wanted to use to evangelize the world.

[7:11] That is a mistake that hinders the gospel from getting the world. How many in this room would say, and no changing it, you know with all your heart, you believe, I'm a called preacher.

[7:25] God spoke to me. God wants me to carry the gospel. If you believe that about yourself, hold your hand. If you really believe you're called to go and say the gospel, God called you. Okay. Now, not everybody in the room can raise their hand. And that's great.

[7:36] That's fine. But the verse in 1 Thessalonians was written to the Thessalonican church. And from them, the word had gotten out. Now, we're not all going to be preachers.

[7:47] But what happens is, here's what we end up doing in this room. You end up saying, well, God called Austin. And God called Matt. And God called Bo.

[7:58] And we understand God called all of them. And they should get the gospel to the world. That is one of the things that hinders the gospel from getting to the world. In Romans chapter 12 and verse 1, we went through the whole book of Romans.

[8:10] It says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And don't be conformed to the world, so you can know it is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

[8:24] You know, that was written to Christians. Not preachers. It was written to the church at Rome. Not to Timothy. Not to Titus. How many of you remember playing tag when you were a kid?

[8:38] How many of you ever played tag? Anybody play tag? See, this is how you listen to it. You know what tag is. You remember, you dodge. And you make sure they don't catch you. You don't want to be it.

[8:49] I tagged you. You're now it. If you got tagged, you were it. No one wants to get tagged. And that's how you feel about world evangelism. Most of the time.

[9:01] Most of us say, I'll go if God tags me, but He hasn't tagged me. I am good at running, getting away, hiding, and not being where I might get tagged.

[9:18] I want you to understand something. We have a whole different philosophy of biblical Christianity today. Our philosophy is, I don't want to be a missionary.

[9:29] I don't want to carry the gospel. I don't want to see, I mean, I want God to do it. I just don't want Him to use me. And so we play tag. So we run for it. We dodge every chance we can.

[9:41] We've developed an us, them view of the Bible. And there's some of us in this room, and everybody in this room knows, that's them. They're the ones that are supposed to take the gospel to the world.

[9:54] Austin's got a whole bunch of mysteries around him. He likes them better than he likes us. They're better than us, and they're supposed to do that, and we're not supposed to do that. They're on the team, and we're not on the team. Maybe we're cheerleaders, and maybe we're the booster club.

[10:08] But we're not one of them. That's them, and this is us. And we have developed that view. We feel like it's our job to pray a little, give a lot.

[10:18] Boy, that's what you hear all the time. Give, give, give. Enjoy life. Count the mysteries as our heroes, while we live life like it was meant to be lived. Our basic philosophy ends up being, hey, if God calls you to some God-forsaken, awful place like Burkina Faso, where in her kitchen it can be 110 degrees, or who was it?

[10:44] One of the missionary wives just got, Lori Holt just got air-conditioned in her kitchen, and she was so excited. She has air-conditioned in her kitchen. She can keep the temperature down in the 80-90 range in the hot summertime.

[10:59] She can be cool, and she doesn't even, I think she got it lower than that. She didn't even have to sweat, which was a big deal. I've been at their house. I've been in their house in the summertime, and we'd be sitting talking, and I'd say, Jason, can we go outside?

[11:11] And the sun be on this side, that side go on that side, that side go on the shady side, and pray for wind. I've been to Burkina Faso and watched Gecko, Gecko, Gacko, whatever they're called, come running across the ceiling, fall on, fall on Rebecca Shoemaker's head, bounce off, and hit the kids, the baby's high chair thing, and hit the floor, and keep on running, and she acted like nothing happened.

[11:36] I was like, if that happened to me, I would have passed out and died right then and there. Amen? Or to live in northern Africa, Morocco, where Jillian Bashor has walked down the street and had men come up to her and lick her face because her husband wasn't with her.

[11:59] She's just walking down in a mall, and they just come and they lick her face, or they touch her body, or they grope her because she's a woman by herself, and she's very uncomfortable living there.

[12:11] I don't know if you other ladies might feel that way. And sometimes you might even think, well, boy, they get to drive around, they got Macs, and they got iPads, and they got it really knocked. Well, it's probably not what you think it is once you get there.

[12:23] So you want to say, well, you know, God didn't call me to that, but I can go to Myrtle Beach once a year, or I can whatever, and I'm all for that. Let's enjoy life. God gave us richly to enjoy, but it's not an us-them thing.

[12:36] We as laymen want to be seen as just as important, but never see the need to pay the same price. I don't know how many times I've had it fed to me, Austin, you make people that aren't ministries feel like second-class citizens.

[12:50] You need to make us feel like we're just like them, but you don't want to pay that price. I have a friend who is a retired E9.

[13:01] If you've been in the military, you know that's pretty hard. He made E9 in the Air Force in 18 years. Total retirement time is almost 50 years because he got into ROTC after he got out.

[13:12] He was 28 years, 27 years in the Air Force, and then he retired again from school. And every time I've introduced him to somebody that served, he always says, thank you for your service. And they say, thank you for your service.

[13:25] And so it's a funny thing. They come off the air. I've been at the Atlanta airport so many times I couldn't count it, but if they come walking in in their uniform, there's a clap. And everybody knows, man, these guys did the service.

[13:36] They clapped for them. They got people waiting for them. But it's our job to live normal lives like it was meant to be lived. But we want to be just as important. We figure they want to go overseas because they like the adventure.

[13:51] Before we go on, let me just say this to you. And this is all Peyton McNully's fault, so I wouldn't have preached this division. I preached at the summit. That's the missions conference on steroids. But let me just tell you that for almost four years, my life was miserable with Betty because when I told her God wanted us to go to the mission field, and I believe that with all of my heart because God wanted us to go down there and do something very unusual, she cried every day.

[14:15] Every day. Our life was hard because no matter what happened, she was always crying. She got over it. She says, you never get me out of it.

[14:26] She got over it. She got over it. By the time we came back to start Vision Baptist Church, I told her, I said, I really believe God wants us to go back and start a church in Alpharetta. And she was mad at me and started crying.

[14:38] And I said, what are you taking me back to America for? I'm like, you came back up your mind, you dang mad. But we'd already been down there over 18 years, and she was crying and probably 1,500, 2,000 people were sitting in front of us in the auditorium where all the churches had come together and nobody knew we were leaving yet.

[14:55] I'm going to tell you that it's not the picnic. Our first three years, we were robbed or attempted to be robbed 55 times that we wrote down our first three years.

[15:06] Our daughter was gang raped by three men. Her virginity was taken when she was 13. They broke into our house. They broke into our car. They took stuff off of our persons.

[15:19] A ton of junk happened. Put in a hospital, land stolen from us. I'm just telling you, if I thought it was a picnic, I promise you I wouldn't be promoting it. It's not a picnic.

[15:32] Number three, we feel like church is about our enjoyment and our worship. We feel like church is about our enjoyment and our worship. We misunderstand worship.

[15:45] Worship is not the good feeling you get when you sing. Let me just say this to you real quickly. Let me tell you a pastor trick. Did you know you're to never ever build?

[15:58] You always, if you're a pastor and you're trying to get people to give money, always build an auditorium. Always build an auditorium. Because they will pay for a good seat in a cool or warm place to listen to preaching because they're supposed to go.

[16:14] Don't build an educational building. Because they don't really care about Sunday school that much anyway. And so if you ever drive around Georgia, you will see an auditorium and then another auditorium and then another auditorium.

[16:26] Have you ever noticed that? How many of you have ever noticed it? And the reason is because you won't pay for it unless it's for your rear end. That's what they teach you in pastor school. Worship's not the fun, goose bumps, Holy Spirit meetings that we've been to.

[16:42] Worship is sacrifice. It's getting off the throne of my life and allowing him to direct me. It's not following my plans but his plans for my life. It's not about getting but giving and serving.

[16:55] We think a good church is supposed to help us. Help us have a good family. Help us keep our children protected and pure. Keep our marriage together. Help us to learn to be successful financially and in every way and to bring God's blessings and protection on us.

[17:12] But the Bible says in Hebrews 10, 24, 25 that you congregated to get motivated to do more for God. Look at Hebrews 10, 24.

[17:23] The Bible says and let us consider one another. Let us think about each other to provoke, to motivate, to push, to exhort, to get ready, to love, and to do good works.

[17:39] Verse 25. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. We're to get together so you can say to me, Go Austin, do more.

[17:52] I was listening to an Olympic, I don't know what they are. This guy's doing snowboarding and he said, I think I can do more snowboarding because so many people believe in me.

[18:06] They tell me I can. They tell me I'm the man for the job. That's what church is supposed to be. You come in here and you say, Matt, you can make it, buddy. You can win some people to Christ. You can do something different with your life. God can use you in North Africa.

[18:17] Go, Matt, go. Go, Matt, go. Go, Matt, go. Hey, Ed, I think God could use you. I think God could get you a wife. I think God could get you support. I think God could help you start a church. Come on, buddy, go. We're with you.

[18:28] We're for you. That's how the Olympics works. Actually, if the church provokes us too much, we change churches.

[18:42] If you go to a church where they say, hey, you're supposed to be working. You're supposed to be doing something. You're supposed to knock on some doors, invite some people, help with some stuff, do a little work around the church. We're like, whoa, who, who, who?

[18:54] I just wanted to connect with some people and have some friends. That's all I wanted. We've actually had people say to us, we don't want to go to vision because it sounds like the kind of place where you got to work.

[19:05] If you're going to go, we were looking for a place where we could just relax and enjoy. Actually been told that. As the church has progressed, we seem to need less and less of it. I don't know if you've ever noticed this.

[19:17] When I was a kid, a little boy in Sunday school, we went to Sunday school in the morning, church, church training or training union. I was Southern Baptist boy. And then church on Sunday night. Sunday was a minimum of four hours.

[19:30] And that was if you'd ever seen a Southern Baptist preacher preach one 30-minute message. If church started at 11, he was still screaming at 1230 if you were around back then.

[19:40] Is anybody around remember that? I was Southern Baptist. That's my preacher. But a good preacher, your pants are almost off, you're sweating, your coat's been thrown over there, your horse as you can be. That was the way it was.

[19:51] Then he came back and did it on Sunday night. We had church training at 6, 7, 8, 39. We had to get out of church. Then we had midweek. We had the first church I worked in, we had Monday night youth meeting. Wednesday night we had a church.

[20:05] And today, good churches have one hour a week. Isn't it amazing how much church you need nowadays? Because quote unquote, the church you all think is so good, that's got the really fancy guy on the screen, all they need is one hour.

[20:19] One hour. Give us one hour. But they won't be a world evangelism church. They won't be a church that brings people up from nothing and trains them how to do everything and sends them to the world. We do not see church as a place where we go to figure out how we fit in God's plan for world evangelism and His getting glory.

[20:39] This ought to be the place where you say, I fit in somewhere. I'm not sure where I fit in. I don't feel like I'm a preacher like you are. I don't feel like I can do like the others and travel to another country. We believe that one's religious views are private.

[20:54] That's another mistake that we have. We are not sure what the Bible says. We're not sure what the Bible says is absolutely true for everybody. Listen to me. Way down deep inside, we do not believe that God would really allow anyone to go to hell.

[21:11] If I could talk to you in private, way down deep in the pit of your stomach, it's hard for you to believe that God would ever send anybody to hell. We've developed a God after our own image that's too good to allow people to go to hell.

[21:24] We do not believe there really is a hell. We believe in heaven because that fits and that helps. We simply do not believe there's a real eternal hell where people who reject Christ will spend eternity.

[21:37] Can I just be honest with you? All dogs go to heaven. Everybody loves heaven. Hell, nobody loves. Not discussed. Not believed.

[21:48] Will the millions of China really go to hell? Will the millions of India really go to hell? Since we're embarrassed about our relationship with Christ, we teach our children the same attitude indirectly.

[22:01] We don't want anybody to know we're Christians. We don't mind putting a fish on the back of the truck. We don't mind the big fish and a little bit of your fish and then four or five little fish strung out through there or Mac, Apple Mac, those things you can do that.

[22:17] Or you can even put a little thing on there. But we don't really want to be considered. We're not that much into it. Listen to this one. We don't want our children wasting their lives and something that would keep them from the happiest, most productive things of this life.

[22:34] I'm a dad and a granddad. And the last thing you want is your kid to go to Morocco or Bikino Faso, if we're honest. We believe that somehow everyone will get to heaven in the end.

[22:49] Like a good Walt Disney movie. We believe that God has already predetermined everything and so our going or staying will not make a difference. We believe that bad people will just quit existing when it's over and God will never make them suffer forever.

[23:06] We believe God didn't give us special gifts that make us missionaries. We do not have what all those special people seem to have. And I'll stop on that one and we'll move on to the surface.

[23:17] I just want you to know something. The Bible's clear about world evangelism and you've agreed to that. How many of you agree that the Bible's clear we're supposed to get the gospel of the world and say amen? Should a church be organized around the thought let's take the gospel to the world?

[23:32] Should a church have the idea my children for his kingdom? My children for his causes? Some of you might say I just don't like the way they're treated.

[23:43] Well then let's treat them all better so we wouldn't feel so bad about sitting in hours. The Johnsons have a good idea of what it feels like to have a... They know what it's like for Ben this morning to walk into some church somewhere maybe he had a meeting maybe he dropped in they have an idea of what that's like.

[23:56] They know what it's like for their daughter to be trying to learn Arabic over in Tunisia in a place that's a lot more free than Morocco but still not free. Some of us might know that. But we make a big mistake guys.

[24:09] I think with all my heart that you believe that we ought to get the gospel to the world. But there's a big disconnect in what you believe and what you do with what you believe. There's a big disconnect.

[24:22] Now here's the big disconnect and I close. We are playing tag with God. Most of us are thinking I'm just glad God didn't tag me where my picture has to go on that back wall.

[24:36] I wouldn't mind my picture being back there saying how great a guy I was. But I'm just glad God didn't call me to go somewhere else to do something really weird. We're afraid of eating weird foods, afraid of living in weird houses, afraid of how people might be treated.

[24:49] We're afraid of all those things. But here's the deal. You want my vision? And Peyton said you ought to just tell the truth. So here's the truth. I believe Vision Baptist Church exists to evangelize the world and our generation.

[25:04] I believe Vision Baptist Church exists for you to help me train young men, for you to train young men, for you to lead people to Christ, for me to lead people to Christ, for you to be all doing ministry, and for us to all be working and sweating towards a goal of getting the gospel to the world.

[25:19] Now God might not have sent you to the world. He may not have sent you to the world. But He definitely sent you to help get the people ready to go to the world. You may not be their soldier on the ground. You may be flying over in a jet dropping bombs to soften the territory.

[25:33] But God sent us to the world. The world should hear the gospel message of Jesus Christ. And I should get the gospel to the world. And you should get the gospel to the world.

[25:45] That ought to be the goal of our life. How many of you agree with that? Say amen. You may really, I got one more message for you in just a minute. You may really not be very happy with me before it's over. But I'm just telling you, there's a lot to be done.

[25:57] Let's pray that God helps us carry the gospel message to the world. Father, I pray that you'd work. I pray that your name would be glorified and magnified. I pray you'd bless in everything else that we do in this evening service.

[26:10] I pray that you'd show your power. God, I pray that our church would have a united heart. I think they do. But I pray you'd help us to have a united heart about getting your gospel to the world. And I'll give you great honor and glory and praise for all that you do.

[26:23] Thank you so very much. In Jesus' name. Amen. Take your Bibles, if you would, and open them to 1 Corinthians 15, verse 34. I want to talk to you about what churches can do to help all people here.

[26:37] And I want to share some testimony with you so that I think you can get the picture. I am a, I was, but we were missionaries in Peru, South America.

[26:55] And the people that go to Wrigley Baptist Church, which is a little bitty country church in middle Tennessee, outside a town called Lyle, L-Y-L-E.

[27:06] I promise you, go home, look it up. You'll have a hard time finding it on the map. The Sunday school teacher that showed me about Jesus probably has no idea that I'm a pastor and I have been for over 40 years.

[27:21] Carlton Flowers is in heaven. He was the pastor who led me to Christ in 1962. I'm sure he knows because he's in heaven. But Carlton Flowers was a smoking, cigarette smoking Southern Baptist.

[27:34] It wasn't against, people weren't against it that much back then, just to be honest with you. The deacons all spoke together right outside the church. You can always find your way to church because they had flashing lights out there.

[27:45] It got red. If they'd all done it in unison, you'd have known exactly where the church was. I smoked my first cigarettes at church. When the deacons would flick their cigarette butts over, all of us boys would run and grab one and we'd be smoking them too.

[27:57] And so I don't know who I smoked after, but I did. And my daddy didn't smoke. He had quit smoking earlier and he was a get it. He's a get it. The preacher doing it, he's a get it, but he was a get it. I doubt they know much about it.

[28:12] I doubt that that little church knows much about it. I moved on from Wrigley. The next church was Trace Creek Baptist Church. Herman Ellis was my pastor.

[28:24] I'm sure he's in heaven by now. Good night. I was in fourth grade, so that was way back in the boondock of history. You know, for a lot of the young people in this room were born.

[28:36] And at the age of 11, I went off to a summer camp and heard about missions. I'd already heard about it in vacation Bible school. I'd heard about it some in Sunday school. And at the age of 11, I met a lady they called Jean Dock.

[28:48] And Jean Dock was a missionary doctor from China. She was retired. Her husband had died. And when playtime came, you could go swimming. You could go riding horses.

[28:59] And you could go shooting bows and arrows. They had everything. Fancy camp. Or you could go sit and talk to Jean Dock. There was usually one or two of us. But I sat at her feet almost every day. She rocked in the chair.

[29:10] She was an ancient old lady. She must have been 50. I mean, she was very old. I just remember thinking that woman is old as dirt. I mean, when you're 11, anybody over 20 is old.

[29:24] And Jean Dock, of course, wouldn't know anything except for being in heaven. Herman Ellis turned my name in and had them sending me material about being a missionary. People taught me.

[29:36] People like you. And so when you walk in that nursery and you're holding that baby, you have no idea who you're holding. You're holding a little baby. He could be a Hispanic baby.

[29:48] It could be an African-American baby. It could be an Indian baby. It could be a Filipino baby. It could be any baby. And you don't know if God might be making that baby the next. Charles Spurgeon or William Carey or whoever.

[30:02] You have no idea. Or some peon. Just a little regular guy like me. Or maybe like Aaron Bashore. Or maybe like David Gardner or Phillip Basham or McGill Woody or Travis Snow or Jonathan Marks or Wayne Cook.

[30:15] You have no idea. You teach a children's class and maybe they get on your nerves and they're aggravating and they're causing you trouble. And to you it's like aggravating. But if you get the purpose, if you can get above the whole scene and see it, that kid may end up being somebody God uses in a big way.

[30:36] Our son Chris, God's used our son Chris in amazing ways that mom and dad are very proud of. And I don't get to say that kind of stuff very often but I can remember at Liberty Baptist Church in Cartersville, Mr. Shelton who's been in heaven, he was 65, I was 23 when I started the church and he was the old man.

[30:53] I was a boy and he taught me tons of stuff. He would always take me out and we'd go visiting together and we'd walk around and he'd teach me and he was being nice to me but I was learning because he was so old.

[31:04] And he would tell me stuff about church. He'd been in church all his life and he would, you know, he was always showing me and teaching me stuff and one day he was talking to me.

[31:16] I told him teachers, workers, I said, if you have a child in your Sunday school class that's causing you problems, you need to take them down and sit them with their parents in the adult class. I taught all the adults in one room.

[31:27] So Mr. Shelton asked to see if he could speak to me in private. And so I said, well you need Brother Charles, we go out visiting all the time. And he said, I got this kid in my class. And he said, the kid is like demon possessed.

[31:41] He won't sit still. He won't obey. He won't listen. And I said, don't you put up with that junk, bless God. You take him down to his mom and his daddy and you tell his mom and daddy what he's doing.

[31:54] He said, I'm scared to death of his daddy. And I said, well I ain't scared of him. Who is it? He said, you. That's my son. Been pastoring now over 20 years.

[32:08] Been pastoring over 20 years. You don't know. Somebody's screaming out there. You have no idea if that scream may not someday be. That's how you got to look at it. I worked in Prude. I'd see a guy come in.

[32:19] I'd see a guy who's a fallen down drunk. Chris tells the story of how he led Juan Pacheco to the Lord Juan's church. Well the largest church is not a keeper. He picked that drunk up and carried him home day after day and that guy's a pastor today.

[32:31] Has a large church and God's using him. And so you have to take serious. I mean the Sunday school class you teach is a big deal. Number one, people are getting saved.

[32:41] Lives are being changed. We're not using you just to take up the hour. Some of you aren't signed up. Man, you ought to get involved in Sunday school. You ought to come and say, I want to be in Sunday school.

[32:52] I want to teach a class. You ought to be at the teachers and workers meeting and you ought to say, I want to teach a Sunday school class. You ought to take the Thursday night meetings. You ought to take that and you ought to get involved.

[33:03] You have just no idea what you're doing. William Carey was the father of modern missions among Anglo-Saxons. William Carey was considered to be a little slow.

[33:17] Before it's over, he will start the Calcutta University, write their dictionary for their language, write several dictionaries, translate their Bible and translate their classic literature into English.

[33:29] He was a genius. Whoever taught him had to take their time to work with him. So this is a big deal. You're a church and every one of you have a very important role.

[33:42] I could not think of my life without thinking about the Norwoods who helped me and taught me. I could not think of my life without thinking of Carlton Flowers. I have searched for him.

[33:52] I would love to find his son, Keith Flowers. I'd love to find him just so I could say, I want to thank your daddy. Hey, I'm saved. You made a big difference. Your dad made a big difference. Vernon McGahee, I'd like to find him.

[34:06] I tried. When Facebook came out, I looked for everybody I could. I'm just telling you, you do something bigger than you think you do. And I want to share a little message with you and I'll quit. But I want you to start to, hey, singing in the choir, no little deal.

[34:19] You're doing it number one for Jesus. But did you know that a missionary learns his faithfulness by watching you? He's watching you. He's little and he's watching you.

[34:29] I was, I was a little kid. I learned about faithfulness. I learned about Bible. Can I, listen to this. I know I'm not preaching, but this is vision days. I'm dreaming like an old man.

[34:41] Let me just tell you this. I never went to Bible college. I really never went to Bible college. You want me to tell you where I learned the Bible I know? Number one place, my mother.

[34:55] My mother. She's crazy, but when she was on the same side, she was really good at the Bible part. That's truth. You just have to know. Second place, my church.

[35:08] A bunch of Sunday school teachers like you. And you say, I'm not that smart and I can't do that much. Well, everything that the Lord's let me see happen over the years. And I don't mean this in a boastful way, but it's going to come out that way because when you ever start out saying, I don't mean this boasting, you're boasting.

[35:24] So here I go bragging. You ready? I have seen thousands saved. I have seen hundreds of churches started. I have trained so many leaders, you cannot imagine it.

[35:36] And it started with some little old ladies, probably in their 30s, 40s, teaching me. Let me read you some verses. What can churches do to help?

[35:49] Number one, truly understand your reason to exist. Look at 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 34. The Bible says, Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God.

[36:01] I speak this to your shame. Most churches do not understand why they exist. They have many of their own ideas, but not God's ideas. And now what the Bible says, the verse you see written on the wall was written to the Corinthian church.

[36:15] If you'll look at the bottom, 1 Corinthians. I want you to understand, Corinthian church was a church where a man is sleeping with his daddy's wife. Where people are suing each other.

[36:26] Where people are hero worshipping. Where people are fighting and fussing. They come to church and fight. Every service there was a fight. They come in, some of them over here say, We don't eat meat all for doubt. Well, we do.

[36:38] It's just the wildest place. This is like the most carnal church that Paul writes a letter to. And this is what he said to them. There are people around the world that haven't heard the gospel. Shame on you people.

[36:50] He didn't say that to the Philippian church. He didn't say that to the Roman church. He said that to the carnal church. Here's some mistaken ideas about why we exist.

[37:02] For good Christian fellowship. Though that's great and we ought to enjoy it, that's not why we're here. So we can have a good environment to raise our godly children in it. That's not why we're here. That's good.

[37:13] It's a side effect, but it's not why we're here. For us to learn how to deal with life's issues. For us to learn to live holy and pure lives. For us to be good citizens and protect morality. For us to gather and worship God.

[37:26] For us to learn more about God and the Bible. All of those are good reasons. I love our church for that. I love the fact that we can come together. I love the fact that we can worship. I love watching God work in your lives.

[37:37] But the reason we exist is there are some who have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. Jesus is the one who has a right to tell us what we are to do as a church.

[37:47] Matthew 28, 18, He said, All power is given unto me. I can say what I want and here's what I want. Go teach all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

[38:00] So the goal of our church is to get the gospel all over the world. We are going to be going and sending, baptizing and teaching and planting churches will do just that.

[38:10] That is the purpose of a church. That's why we exist. If you own a store or whatever you own, there's a reason for having that.

[38:23] I grew up on a farm. My daddy did not like horses. I had a horse because I proved I could use the horse to go count the cattle to get around the farm quicker. But my daddy hated horses.

[38:35] He said, They eat, but I can't sell them and I can't eat them. He said, I can't. He said, If it don't produce me something, I'm getting rid of it. So we had one horse and I rode the fire out of her trying my best to make sure she was worthwhile as I did the work.

[38:52] Number two, every member needs to understand the goal. Romans 12.1 said, Brethren, present your bodies a living sacrifice. It's your reasonable service. It is not enough for the pastor to understand this.

[39:06] You've got to understand here. Sometimes there's maybe a division between us, between me and you that shouldn't be there because we should be one big body. It's not my job to evangelize the world.

[39:17] You know, you go to a weird church and I know you know that. I know what sometimes makes you uncomfortable. Missionaries everywhere you turn. Young people surrender to be missionaries. Kids, your children might be, might become missionaries.

[39:30] Everybody wants you to give more money to missions. Shouldn't we have a more exciting play time or whatever and you're upset about it? Every one of us has got to learn this. Every member must understand that Jesus left the church here to be an army that would get the word of God, the gospel, to the entire world.

[39:48] None of us are spectators. None of us. None of us are spectators. In Hebrews 10.24 and 25, which is a verse where we tell people they ought to come to church, it was to revoke you to do good works.

[40:03] If they want their needs met, they will not enjoy a biblical New Testament church. If you want your needs met, you will not enjoy a biblical New Testament church.

[40:16] If members want to be served, then they will not be happy in a biblical New Testament church. The goal wasn't given to the special elite forces that were called to the gospel ministry.

[40:27] God doesn't have one group who's supposed to serve Him wildly and fully while others float through life without a care. Everyone must get off their seat and into the fight.

[40:40] Off their seat and into the fight. Number three, learn how to count what really counts. What really counts in church? Now you don't know how this, let me explain how it works with pastors.

[40:54] Buildings, budgets, and baptism. When you're a pastor, that's how you judge yourself. When you pull up, you look at a building and you go, phew, phew, it's got a good church.

[41:06] Look at that building. That's one of the first things you want to look at. They pull up here and they go, oh, warehouse, loser church. I know that, man. I had one guy come in here and he looked around and he goes, man, I'd sure be doing something to fix this place.

[41:21] Buildings, that's what pastors look at. Budgets, how much money are you bringing in? And they love, pastors love talking about that. How many of you baptize them? They love talking about that. None of those three things are the things God talks.

[41:34] Somebody else said you add backsides. That's the fourth B, backsides. How many backsides you got in the pews? But the real thing that counts, 2 Timothy 2, verse 2, Paul writes to Timothy, his young preacher, and he says to him, the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.

[41:55] He said, Timothy, let me tell you what I want you to do. Go find men who can teach other men that can teach other men to do what I'm teaching you to do.

[42:06] So Timothy was supposed to go into the church and walk around the church and Timothy was supposed to be saying, can you do what Paul wants me to do? Can you do, I think maybe you can, I'll work with you, but you've got to be able to teach him. If you can't teach him, I'm not going to help you.

[42:17] Can you? And the real focus of everything Timothy was to do was to find other men who could do what Paul taught Timothy to do. He was to reproduce himself.

[42:29] It was pastors that reproduced themselves. Now, if you look around the scene and you came, before you came to our church, churches are dying. The churches are getting old. I call them Q-tip churches.

[42:40] If you look in their church, it's a bunch of Q-tips. Everybody's gray-headed. I was just at a pastor's fellowship and I am 59 years old and I was one of the young guys at the fellowship.

[42:53] I'm 59 and I was on the young side. I mean, it's a bunch of old people but are going to die. The only thing lacking in their church is a casket to put them in when they fall over dead. And this was the pastors.

[43:04] The number of spectators is never the goal. Jesus had thousands come hear Him but when He asked them to take up the cross, die of themselves, drink His blood and eat His flesh, they left.

[43:16] What really counts is what are they doing that accomplishes the Great Commission. What are we doing that really accomplishes the Great Commission? So our church should count Ephesians 4, verse 12.

[43:32] That's a counting place. Here's a counting place. Remember Ephesians 4, verse 11, He gave gift to people for the perfecting of the saints.

[43:43] So literally, let me help you understand, my job is to help you do ministry. I am a coach. Trent is a coach. Robert's a coach.

[43:53] Brother Frick's a coach. Miguel's a coach. We're coaches. I'm the head coach for whatever football team you want and then we got defensive coach and offensive coach and baptizing coach and a praying coach.

[44:05] We got all these coaches and our job is to help you do the work. Churches have fights and fusses and splits and everything else because people aren't doing the ministry.

[44:18] So what do we count? We count how many people we grow to maturity. That's why I so desperately want you to get involved in foundations. If I could beg you, if you have not been through foundations, get through foundations, get with somebody to help you and find somebody to disciple.

[44:32] Train somebody. Watch this. You say, how much I got to do? Hey, you know how many children you have to have to keep the population growth steady in a country?

[44:43] 2.1. 2.1 children per family. If your family had less than 2.1, if you had less than three kids, you helped the population go down.

[44:54] China has a one-child policy. Their population is sinking. There are people in our church like the Mises. They took up a lot of slack for some of the rest of you.

[45:08] But the point is, listen to what I'm going to tell you. None of us have to be superheroes. But if you could take one little Austin, one little Bo, one little Ed in a Sunday school class and show him Jesus and teach him how to serve God, if you could take one little Ben Johnson, if you could take one little Philip Basham, if you could help him want to love Jesus, and maybe you spend all your life and all you do is teach two or three kids that grow up to do something for God, you will have accomplished great things.

[45:43] Nobody remembers the name of the guy who led D.O. Moody to Christ. D.O. Moody was a shoe salesman. His Sunday school teacher found out he was going to die, and so he goes to see D.O. Moody.

[45:56] D.O. Moody thinks he's just come to get some money for an offering or something because D.O. Moody is making good money and the man said, I'm here to tell you about Jesus. D.O. Moody got saved.

[46:08] And D.O. Moody led lots of people to Christ and there's a whole chain of evangelists all the way down to modern times that trace their roots back to that guy. But that little Sunday school teacher whose name nobody knows in heaven will very likely be the one who gets the majority of the reward.

[46:25] How much we pray to get the gospel to the world? How much money do we give? We can count that. We can count how much we pray. We can count how many people we're seeing baptized, saved, baptized, trained, and motivated to send to the world.

[46:37] The real goal of every church should be to produce missionary after missionary to take the gospel to the world. I have preached all over the United States. Most churches have never seen one missionary come out of their church.

[46:52] If we do not produce missionaries and send them around the world, how can we in good conscience claim to be fulfilling the Great Commission? The American answer is throw a dollar at it. If one dollar won't handle it, five dollars will.

[47:05] Throw some money. The Great Commission says nothing about blooming where you're planted, but sending. Exactly how many of our own members have gone to the mission field, started churches, trained leaders, and left something that lives on after them.

[47:23] When I am dead, when I am dead, if Jesus hasn't come back, I have four children that will keep living, Lord willing, married to four kids. I have 18 grandkids. Those 18 grandkids will get married and there will be great grandkids.

[47:35] I'm leaving something. I left Adiquipa, Peru. I left Adiquipa, Peru and the Faith Baptist Church that gave that to me still goes on today. The Hunter Baptist Church was the first church I worked in still goes on today.

[47:47] I don't know how many they had in attendance at either church, but both of them were well over 250 people. The Hunter Baptist Church has already started more, maybe 10 churches. After I've gone, they've started more churches under Miguel Murillo's leadership.

[47:59] God's doing big stuff. You leave something that lasts a lifetime. Number four, how can you be involved in accomplishing the Great Commission?

[48:10] Number one, become someone that's living out your faith. Listen to me. You say, where do I fit in?

[48:21] How do I personally do this? Start living out your faith. Too many of us talk about it, but your faith is real to you. You talk about Jesus where you go, you're witnessing, and you tell about what He did on Calvary.

[48:35] You live out your faith in your family. You're helping others to learn to follow Christ. Live out your faith. Second, start loving others and helping them follow Christ.

[48:46] Start helping others follow Christ. Pray for people to surrender to go to the mission field. Invest money. How about this one?

[48:57] Don't try to discourage people from going to the mission field by making it look like your secular job is the one to have. One of the things that really bothers me is, man, you know, we brag about sports people.

[49:09] We brag about money-making people. The person to be is the rich businessman. The person to be is the engineer, the doctor, the philosopher, the college professor. But the last thing you want to be is just somebody who would go preach the gospel to somebody.

[49:24] If one of our kids comes in and says, hey, I feel like God wants me to make a... There's a kid at the summit. He told me... Not summit. It was a wedding I just said. And he said, God wants me to be a millionaire and give a lot of money.

[49:38] That's what he told me. Well, who doesn't want that job? I'd love it if God wanted me to be a millionaire, wouldn't you? I mean, how many of you pray God to make you a millionaire? I think I'd like that idea. He said, I think God wants me to be a millionaire and give a lot of money.

[49:51] Of course, I don't know what he's given or what he's got now. Don't discourage them. Don't discourage them. Over the years, pastors and parents have been the biggest hindrance to people wanting to go to the mission field.

[50:03] Honor and praise those that go and teach the Bible the Word of God. Look at 1 Timothy 5, 17, 18. I'm almost finished. I know you're ready to go home. Look at 1 Timothy 5, 17, 18 with me.

[50:14] Would you? Look at this. Let the elders, elders, pastors, bishops, same word, that rule will, that lead the church will be counted worthy of double honor. That's actually double pay.

[50:27] Especially they who labor. That's a funny word. Labor in the Word and doctrine. They really do have a real job. My brother loves to kid me. He said, not everybody has a job where you work three hours a week like you do.

[50:41] He loves to tell me that all the time. I said, why don't you do so and so? He said, well, if I didn't have a job like you, I'd do whatever I wanted. Well, I've got to work for a living. And then he tells the minister, you sure made the wrong choice.

[50:52] If you were looking for a career path to make money, you picked the wrong one. Show honor to these young guys. Verse 18. For the Scripture says, thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn.

[51:06] The laborer is worthy of his reward. Treat preachers, not me, I'm not talking about me. I'm plenty well cared for. But treat them with respect. Be careful not to have the attitude that being in the ministry is a lesser position.

[51:20] A beggar, a lazy person looking to get something for nothing. We actually lost a family because the man didn't like it. The people needed money to go to the mission field and were asking for money.

[51:33] When he was supposedly very rich and drove up here in his fancy SUV that was a real big name, but he said, I just can't take everybody. Everybody expects you to give money towards missions that church.

[51:44] They ought to get a job like I had to get a job. The attitude of your church will be contagious to your young people.

[51:56] As a church, we get what we honor. We get what we expect. What are you expecting from those in your church? Can I just tell you what I'm expecting? I look at all these young people and I expect one thing.

[52:08] Missionaries. You say, well, brother, you're expecting wrong. I'm going to keep on praying and keep on expecting. You know what? I look at some of you. Some of you, you're already in your late 20s and 30s and I'm still thinking, he could still turn the corner.

[52:21] You never know. Now, those of you in your 60s, you can rest. You can relax. I've already given up on you. I've already given up on you. But we were told to take the gospel to the world.

[52:33] And when Jesus comes back, the car I drive, the house I live in, the toys I have to play with, I love toys and I have toys. I'm not against your toys. I'm just telling you that when it comes to the end of it, one of the things that's going to matter is what we've done for Jesus.

[52:49] Now, we've all said that all our lives, but we don't really believe that. We don't really believe that. You ought to be praying, God, call my son. God, call my daughter.

[53:00] You say, I just want to do what God wants to do. That's a nice way of saying you want your kid to play tag like you did. Because you know what happens. You know what's really scary is when they really get right with God.

[53:13] Because when they really get right with God, it's scary as all get out. When somebody really gets right with God, they're like, I'll do anything you want me to do, God. What do you want me to do? Mission field? Sure. And you're like, oh, oh. Didn't mean if you'd get that right.

[53:24] I don't know how many people I saw over the years and proved their husband was a druggered. And wouldn't come to church and ask me to pray and we'd go visit him and he'd get saved and he'd get called to ministry. And I've had them flat out, just flat out tell me, I never wanted him to be in the ministry.

[53:39] I just wanted him to quit being a drunk and beating me. You've got to take a stand. Time to honor Jesus. Well, I've laid out my vision more than I have in the whole eight years. Never in my life have I said so much about it here at the church.

[53:53] But I will tell you this, it is my dream that before I can no longer preach that this church will send out more missionaries than you could possibly dream of. That we will see more people saved and call the ministry.

[54:05] We will start dozens of Cobb County churches. We will send mysteries around the world. And I am 59 years old and know that I probably don't have more than 10 or 12 years. But I'm going to bust it as hard as I can.

[54:16] And I hope that you will too. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia. For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.