FBCPS
Sermons, teachings, and podcasts from First Baptist Church in Powder Springs, Georgia.
FBCPS
Your Greatest Mission Imaginable | Matthew 28:16-20
What if the five things people typically live for—success, relationships, pleasure, impact, and fulfillment—were actually byproducts of living for something greater? Through a captivating story about glowing waters in Jamaica, we discover how our lives can illuminate the darkness around us when we embrace our divine purpose.
The Great Commission isn't just a biblical concept; it's our greatest mission imaginable. Breaking down Matthew 28:19-20, we explore what it truly means to "go, make disciples, baptize, and teach." The command to "go" doesn't necessarily mean traveling to foreign lands—it means bringing Jesus' authority and power wherever you already are. When we hesitate or doubt this calling, we miss divine appointments that could transform lives, including our own.
Making disciples requires both evangelism and discipleship—like two pedals on a bicycle that must work together for forward momentum. We're called to disciple people of every ethnicity, nation, and background, recognizing that every human bears God's image equally. From the symbolic power of baptism to the responsibility of teaching both through words and actions, every aspect of the Great Commission invites us into something transcendent.
Throughout this journey, we're never alone. Jesus promises His presence "to the end of the age," empowering us with everything we need. Whether you're just beginning your faith journey or looking to deepen your spiritual impact, the Great Commission offers the meaningful purpose you were created for—the "more" your heart has always longed to discover.
What would happen if you stopped pursuing those five things directly and instead embraced the mission Jesus has uniquely equipped you to fulfill?
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Well, good morning, put your hands together if you're excited to be in church together today. It is good to see everybody here, patter Springs. God is so good. I'm so thankful for what he's doing in your life, in our church family and in your family, and, man, we are just so grateful for the way that God is moving. First of all, I just want to remind all the men in the room all the men say, yeah, men in the room we've got a men's breakfast coming up this Saturday at 7 am. Brand new restaurant opening up called Big Doug's Place, right over in Hiram. If you've ever eaten at the one over in Emerson, it's amazing, and this is going to be a relaunch to our men's ministry. So all the men are invited, boys are invited, any men that you know they can come and we're going to go and just have a big men's breakfast there and you get all you want to eat because it's on you, okay. So, man, it's going to be a great. It's a great time together and we can't wait to be there.
Speaker 1:Just this past Sunday we had our Next Step Lunch. I just want you to know we had 18 people in our Next Step lunch. Many of them said we wanna join a group. We wanna get involved in ministry. We wanna join the church. Put your hands together for new church family members. We're so thankful for the way that God is moving and that he is growing. First Baptist Church, powder Springs. Let me pray for you, heavenly Father, in Jesus' name, I just pray for all of our men, all of our women, all of our boys, all of our girls here in this room, everybody online. And Father, we just want to say that this is your church, we are your people, this is your word. So we pray for your work in our hearts and God, we ask in Jesus' name that you would just accomplish your will in us and through us. We pray these things in Jesus' name and all God's people said amen.
Speaker 1:I remember back in my 20s I got to go on a mission trip to Jamaica. To Jamaica there are worse places to go on mission trips than Jamaica but we were there for a week and I was in college at the time and it was a mission trip where we were doing just mission, hard work, hard labor, honestly all week long. The last day was kind of that fun day where you get to see a lot of the country, you get to meet a lot of the people, you get to eat a lot of the food, and so, man, we just had an amazing time in Jamaica the last day. The last thing that we did was at night it was a Friday night and they took us to a place called Glistening Waters, and Glistening Waters was a restaurant, and so you would go and you would order fish there and they would literally catch the fish in the Caribbean Sea for you and they would grill it up, and while they were catching it, while they were grilling it, they would take you out on a boat ride in the Bay of the Caribbean Sea. So there we are in a boat, and as we're going out, it is pitch black at night, it's late in the evening, and so we're thinking what are we going to see, right, when you're out on the water in the Caribbean Sea and it's dark outside.
Speaker 1:But then we noticed some of you had heard me tell the story before that the water coming out from the boat began to glow. So we thought maybe there were lights under the boat. There weren't any lights under the boat, because we could see, 10 to 15 feet out, fish that would be swimming around. And so the captain of the boat told us that in that part of the bay, in that part of the Caribbean Sea, there were billions and billions of billions of little microscopic phosphoritic organisms that are basically like microscopic lightning bugs that would light up when they get stirred up. So whenever the water was stirred, it would look like the water was lighting up. Here is a picture that it would kind of look like right there.
Speaker 1:And so the captain asked who would like to jump in. I said I will jump in second, as long as somebody goes first, in case there's any sharks right. And so somebody jumped in first, I jumped in second. We're all jumped in, we're all playing man and everything's lighting up. We're glowing like those organisms are in our clothes and all this kind of stuff. And then everybody got real still so it would get real dark because the water would stop moving.
Speaker 1:One of us did not get in. His name was Porkchop. Porkchop was about 350 pounds, right, and so we had stopped moving. Everything got dark. We were going to splash again. Well, porkchop was on the side of the boat. He decided to jump in. Boom, everything was glowing. You could see us from the moon, right. And so everything was glowing in the bay because of how much fun we were having.
Speaker 1:And that was just an illustration. It was a story for me that I will never forget, because it's always a reminder for me that as long as I'm living, as long as I'm moving, as long as I'm obeying, as long as I'm sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the Bible says that Jesus is the light of the world and he has called us to reflect his light, to glow like him, and so that's what I want us to see this morning is how your life can make a difference by being different. I believe the Bible says something that is true about every single one of you. It's true about me and it's true about you that we were all made for more. You were made for more. Everyone say more. The question is what is the more that we were made for? We were made for more than what? Well, I looked it up on the internet, so you know that it's true.
Speaker 1:It said it talked about the five main things that people live for today. What are the five things that people say? This is what my life's all about. This is what makes me happy. This is what makes me happy. This is what makes me satisfied, the five things that people live for today. Number one success. Number two relationships. Number three pleasure. Number four impact. Number five fulfillment. And what I want to share with you this morning is that God actually wants all five of those for you. Is that God actually wants all five of those for you. God wants you to experience all five of those in your life, but you will not achieve them when you focus on them. You won't achieve them when you are trying to accomplish them. Rather, you achieve them when you are living your life for the mission of Jesus Christ and then God gives you success. Then God gives you the relationships within that mission and pleasure and impact in the lives of others and personal fulfillment within yourself.
Speaker 1:And we see it in the most important passage of scripture in all of the Bible that I've been waiting to preach to you, and it's on the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. Can I ask us all to stand for one minute? This is about a six-week-long series. We did it last week, we'll do it for the next four weeks after this and I just want us all to stand together and we're going to read the Great Commission. Then I'll ask you to sit down, stand together and we're going to read the great commission that. I'll ask you to sit down, but these are Jesus's final words recorded on earth, and these words were his disciples, and these words were for you, and these words were for me, for Matthew 28, 19 and 20. Let's read together. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and, behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Put your hands together for what Jesus told us to do. You can have a seat. God is so good. What does the great commission mean? Well, great means there's nothing greater. Commission means the com in commission means to do it with. Com means with. In other words, we're doing it with Jesus, we're not doing it alone. Com also means together. We're doing it with Jesus and we're doing it together. So, again, you're not doing it alone.
Speaker 1:Mission means that you have been sent by Jesus. It means that you've been assigned, you've been appointed, you've been empowered, you've been sent on a mission to accomplish for him. In other words, this is your greatest mission imaginable of your whole life. This is your greatest mission imaginable of your whole life. This is your greatest mission imaginable. Everyone has a mission, everyone has a vision, everyone has a goal, everyone has agenda. This is the best mission that you could possibly ever live for, and it tells us to do four things.
Speaker 1:Jesus says he wants us to go, he wants us to make disciples, he wants us to baptize and he wants us to do four things. Jesus says he wants us to go, he wants us to make disciples, he wants us to baptize and he wants us to teach. Let me walk you through those four quickly together this morning. Number one is go. Everybody say go. This is what Jesus said Matthew 28, verse 19,. He said go, therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. First thing, I want you to see that Jesus called you to go because Jesus is the first one who gone. He's the first one who went. Jesus left heaven and he came to earth as the ultimate missionary. He stepped out of his home, he came to our home and he lived on our behalf sinlessly, righteously. He went to the cross on your behalf. He died for your sin. He rose from the dead. Jesus is the ultimate missionary who came for you and now he's calling you, he's calling us to go for him.
Speaker 1:It's not gonna be on the screen, but a couple of verses back. In verse 16, it said that the 11 disciples this is right after Jesus had risen from the dead, right before he ascends back to heaven, it says the 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. You understand that Galilee was a hundred miles from Jerusalem. Jesus called them to go to Galilee, to travel 100 miles by foot. That would be five days to go to a specific mountain. And when they got there, what would they experience? They would get to see the risen, resurrected Lord Jesus. He was worth the trip and they got to hear the great commission that Jesus had for them and for all humanity. In other words, what is going? Going is simply going wherever it is that Jesus has called you to go. And what happens if they didn't go? They would have missed the moment, they would have missed the miracle, they would have missed something incredibly special that Jesus invited them to be a part of. And in the same way, when I don't go, when you don't go where Jesus has called us to go, then we miss the moment and we miss the miracle that Jesus had for us.
Speaker 1:The Bible says in verse 17,. And when the disciples the 11 disciples who had been following him when they saw him, it said they worshiped him, but some doubted. Isn't it interesting that the Bible keeps bringing up doubt? Jesus talked about doubt whenever Peter was walking on the water. And what did Jesus do when Peter doubted? Jesus didn't stiff, arm him. Jesus reached down and grabbed his hand. The Bible says that when Thomas doubted, jesus didn't say well, when you start to believe, then I'll show myself. No, jesus came up to Thomas and said Thomas, here I am. Do you need to touch my nail? Pier scars, thomas. Do you believe me now? What does Jesus do when you doubt? What does Jesus do when I doubt? Jesus comes into our doubts because the Bible says that some worshiped but some doubted. I just think it's very interesting that he doesn't even tell us how much of either worshiped or doubted. But because Jesus had risen from the dead, of course some doubted.
Speaker 1:You believe in a man that came from heaven. He was fully God. He became fully man. He lived a sinless life. He lived a righteous life. Nothing he did was wrong. Everything he did was by the word of God. He did miracles in front of everybody. Jesus died for the sin of the entire world. He suffered and he died. He was buried in a tomb for three days and he rose from the dead.
Speaker 1:I mean, that is an unbelievable faith. You're gonna tell me that you don't doubt sometimes. Of course you're gonna doubt sometimes. In fact, I believe that often, the more real your faith is, the more real your doubts are. But can I encourage you this morning? What should you do when you doubt? Did you know the Greek word for doubt means to hesitate, and what the devil wants us to do instead of worshiping Jesus, is just to hesitate, is just to stop, to calculate and to wait. But what is Jesus telling us to do, even through your doubts? Worship Jesus to calculate and to wait. But what is Jesus telling us to do, even through your doubts? Worship Jesus. If you want God to have power over your doubts, worship Jesus through your doubts.
Speaker 1:Verse 18 says and Jesus came and said to them All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So sometimes, when we hear this verse, go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations and we're baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, we're thinking, well, that's for everybody else, but that's not me, because I'm no super Christian. I know my sin and I know my doubts and I know my struggles and I know my darkness and I know my past and I know my weaknesses. So I know that Jesus could never use me like that. Jesus just uses everybody else like that.
Speaker 1:But actually Jesus said. He said the authority is not on you, the power is not in you, the ability to do this is not from you, jesus said. He came and he said to them that all authority in heaven, on earth has been given to him and therefore he gave it to you when he saved you. He gave it to you when he saved you. What a tragedy it would be if Jesus gave you his authority and his power at your salvation and you never use it for his glory. Jesus said that, as he had all authority and he proved it to us the way in which that he calmed the storms, the way in which that he healed the sick, he raised the dead, he fed the 5,000, he forgave sin. He has all authority and the Bible says that he gives it to you in order to fulfill the great commission. That word go if I can just be a Bible nerd for just a second that word go is porothentes, and porothentes to go. It literally means this you ready for this as you're going, it literally means wherever it is that you are. So, in other words, we're not waiting to make a difference for Jesus when we're on a mission trip one day, when we're out of town, when we're in another state. No, jesus says, wherever you are, he has given you his authority and he's given you his power that wherever you are, he has called you to go. Jesus called Michelle and I to go. Just over a year and a half ago he called us to go to Powder Springs, georgia. And here we are. One of the greatest blessings and one of the greatest callings of our entire life to get to do church and family and ministry and community with you and all of Powder Springs and beyond. We love living here, we love being a part of our church, we love being with you and, just as a reminder, jesus called you to go here too. Whenever that was in your life, jesus called you to go.
Speaker 1:I just heard this past week at our Next Step lunch. There was a couple there who said that they had been looking for a church to thrive in. They felt like God was calling them to thrive in a church. He said that he works for the city of Powder Springs. He would drive by our church some 20 times a day. He said it just never dawned on him to come in and check it out. He said that people would tell him well, if you're looking for a church, come to our church. He said every single person that told him check out our church. He would go online and check out the church and God would say that's not the church I have for you to thrive in.
Speaker 1:He said one day he was out doing some paperwork on the Powder Springs walking trails, in a part of the trail that he said no one ever comes. He said just needed some privacy to get some work done. So there he is sitting where nobody ever comes Powder Springs Walking Trails and he said this couple came bee-bopping down the trail right where he was. So he's sitting there and they start talking to him. He starts talking to them. Long story short, they said we want you to come to our church and he said well, I'm actually looking for a church. So he goes home and he goes online First Baptist Church, powder Springs and he checks it out and God speaks to me. He says that's a church you can thrive in. They come, they check it out, god calls them here and I saw them serving this morning already they're joining the church and man God is already thriving in their life. And I want you to hear me say that God called him to go to that part of the walking trail. God called that couple in our church to go walking down that trail to that point that nobody ever goes. God called them to engage in a conversation so that God could show them First Baptist Church, powder Springs, because God had a church for them to thrive in. Had they not gone, they would have missed the moment and the miracle. Put your hands together right now for the way that God works, for the way that God works. I just want to remind you.
Speaker 1:Famous missionary Jim Elliott said wherever you are, be all there. Why? Because Jesus called you. Wherever you are said wherever you are, be all there. Why? Because Jesus called you wherever you are. So, wherever you are, you've been sent with the power, with the authority of Jesus. Number two Jesus calls us to make disciples. Everybody say make To make disciples. Verse 19 simply says this. Jesus said go therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to make disciples.
Speaker 1:What does it mean to make disciples? Well, people argue about it all the time. Some people say does it mean evangelism? Does it mean that you are always sharing your faith so that people are getting saved? Or does it mean deep discipleship, that you're discipling people so they get deeper and deeper and deeper in their faith? Well, just to Bible nerd out on you for just a second.
Speaker 1:The Greek word is mathesizate, mathe, I'm sorry, mathetesuate, and so what that Greek word means is literally to make someone a disciple. In other words, here's what it means. It means both. It means to invite people to the faith so that they believe, so that they become a follower of Jesus. It means to disciple people in their faith so they are deepened in their relationship with Jesus Christ. It is like having two pedals on a bike. It's like having two oars in a boat. You ever been in a boat before and maybe you're paddling on one side and they're paddling on the other side and you're paddling all of a sudden gets a lot harder and now you're not going anywhere. Now you're just going in circles. You look over and they quit paddling. What happens is, when you focus on one instead of both, life gets hard. You don't go anywhere. When churches only focus on evangelism, they don't go anywhere. When churches only focus on deep discipleship, they don't go anywhere. When churches focus on evangelism and discipleship, they go where Jesus has called them to go. If you believe that, say yeah. And so here's what we see is that it is an unbelievable journey when we get to watch people come to faith in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1:I think about my little girl, brooklyn Rose, six years old and, for you know, probably since she was about three, three and a half, I'd ask her. I would never force, I'd never manipulate, I'd never push, I'd never pressure, but I'd say, brooklyn, is there ever going to come a day you think that you want to give your life to Jesus? I was always just kind of, you know, prodding her a little bit and priming the pump a little bit. You ever think there's going to be a day that you're going to give your life to Jesus? Three and a half four years old Brooklyn would say, dad, I'll do it. I'm like, hey, no pressure, no pressure, like calm down a little bit, I'll do it when I'm ready.
Speaker 1:I remember there was a day as we would take her to church and read her her little children's bible at night and show her little bible cartoons in the morning and pray with her throughout the day and talk about Jesus, just always, just always filling her life with the gospel, just praying that one day she would believe, near the end of her fourth, right before her fifth birthday. I'll never forget the day. It was a Sunday and I actually went and put her on the potty. And I put her on the potty, we were just having our little conversation there and she looked at me and she said Dad, I want to give my life to Jesus. I was like right here, like right now, and let me get you off first, and so I let her get finished and got her off and set her on the ground.
Speaker 1:I said talk to me, babe. She said I want to give my life to Jesus. I said, brooklyn, do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sin, that he rose from the dead and you want to call on him to be the Lord of your life, where you want to live for him the rest of your life. And she said, daddy, I want to give my life to Jesus. So we prayed right there. She prayed the gospel, she gave her life to Jesus. I'll never forget.
Speaker 1:After the prayer, she looked up to me and she said, daddy, I've got the Holy Spirit. Now I was like, yes, you do. I'm raising a Babdacostal, I love it, I love it. Man, god is so good. But I want to remind you that's, that's just the beginning, right, that's the beginning.
Speaker 1:So she comes to faith in Jesus and now it is our job to keep her in church. Now it's our job to keep her in the word of God. Now it's our job to keep her in worship and to encourage her in Jesus. Why? Because now it's our job to disciple her, to become more and more and more like Jesus. And that is what God is calling us to do as a church to see people come to faith in Jesus. And then we get the opportunity to disciple them in his truth.
Speaker 1:And one of those opportunities we have coming up is our Vacation Bible School Week that we call KidVenture Extreme Week. It's going to be the first week of June. Now, hear me, this is the most important week of the year that our church does all year long, because the majority of our kids here will not just be our church kids, they will be the kids from the community, and we don't know whenever they're going to get to hear the gospel, we don't know whenever they're going to be invited to believe in Jesus, and I would tell you right now that we still need to have some volunteer slots open in order for you to fill. We've got some slots in our one-year-old, our pre-Ks, our second grade, our third grade, our fourth grade and our fifth grade. We need a lot there, and all of our recreation time as well, and I want to encourage you. If there was ever a week to take off work, if there was ever a week to say Jesus, I am just gonna sacrifice everything for you this week. It is the week that you can serve Jesus by raising up the next generation in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the first week of June. I wanna encourage you to get involved, because Jesus has called us to make disciples, and not just to make disciples, but I wanna remind you that he's called us to make disciples of all nations.
Speaker 1:Everybody say all Of all nations, just very quickly. That word all nations, it literally is ethnos, pos, ethnos, and it's talking about ethnicity, race, nation, country, people, group. In other words, jesus is calling us to go everywhere. Jesus is calling us to go to everyone. You realize, there's 195 countries in the world, but there are 17,000 different people groups. 7,500 of them are unreached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every single person on the planet has been fully and equally created in the image of God, and God is calling us to be a multi-ethnic church, as God calls every church to reflect their community. You realize, in our church alone, first Baptist Church, powder Springs, we have Nigerians, we have Liberians, we have Ugandans, we have Zimbabweans, we have Trinidadians, we have Jamaicans, we have Mexicans, we have Japanese Americans, we have African Americans, we have European Americans. And who knows where you're from? You know what I'm saying. Like man, I'm just. I love a melting pot of people, diverse maybe in our ethnicity, but we are unified in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Put your hands together right now, because God is glorified. He's glorified when we're unified, even as we are diversified.
Speaker 1:I just want you to know you're hearing it here for the first time we are taking a mission trip to Puerto Rico, a mission trip as a church, to Puerto Rico October 25 to 31. You can go online, you can check it out and I want to encourage you, if there are still spots open. I wanna encourage you to go If you've never been on Mission Trip before or if you've done it before to go. We're taking a mission trip to Uganda to go and be a part of Gant Morgan's mission. Gant grew up here, he's a missionary in Uganda and we of Gant Morgan's mission. Gant grew up here, he's a missionary in Uganda and we're taking a mission trip there in September and I want to encourage you to go if you've never been or if you have before, because we are called to be a church by Jesus, to go on mission together.
Speaker 1:As Jesus's disciple, you are called to make more disciples. Number three, very quickly, is baptize. Everyone say baptize, baptize. Jesus said go, therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. What is baptism? Baptism is when you go under the water, you're saying I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. When you come out of the water. You're saying I believe that Jesus rose from the dead.
Speaker 1:The best I've heard it explained is baptism is like a wedding ring. A wedding ring don't make you married. You can put a wedding ring on, but that don't mean you're married, right. But a wedding ring is a symbol that you are married to somebody. In the same way, just because you get baptized, it doesn't make you saved. The Bible says that once you get saved, then you get baptized as a symbol of your salvation. It's a public expression of your salvation. As a wedding ring says, you can't have this right. Baptism tells the devil you can't have this. I'm all Jesus's, amen, amen.
Speaker 1:So I want to encourage you that, as you share your faith wherever you go, as you witness for Jesus, we're calling people to faith in Jesus and we get to celebrate together when people get baptized. I want to encourage you have you been baptized? We don't guilt here, we don't shame people, we don't force, we don't manipulate, we don't twist arms. We just encourage people in the word of God. Have you been saved and have you been baptized? Since you've been saved, you know Mother's Day is coming up. Baptizo is the Greek word and it literally means to be immersed or to go under the water. Mother's Day is coming up and I can't think of a better day than if you still need to be baptized, as God is calling you to be baptized, to get baptized as a way to honor, maybe, your mom, or all moms, as we get to celebrate your baptism on Mother's Day. You let us know and we would love to baptize you on Mother's Day.
Speaker 1:You know, jesus said. He said go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and hear it. He says in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Why are we baptized? Why should you get baptized? In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? Because it took the whole Trinity to save you. Can I get an amen? Just like it took the whole Trinity to save me? I've heard it said before.
Speaker 1:You know what would it take for the devil to get you unsaved? And the Bible says that when you're saved, you are dipped in the blood of Jesus. The Bible says that the hand of the Father grips you and that no one can open. The Bible says that he wraps you in his Holy Spirit. If the devil ever wanted to unsave you, he'd have to unwrap the Holy Spirit from the hand of the Father, the devil would have to pry open the hand of the Father. The devil would have to dive under the blood of the Holy Spirit just to get to you. And if the devil's ever under the blood, then he'd be a saved devil. You know what I'm saying? Like, the devil can't get to you and that's why we get baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And I just want to encourage you this morning, no matter who you are or how old you are. We've baptized a four-year-old who's believed in Jesus. I've baptized a 90-year-old lady before Last year we got to baptize here and a lady in her 80s and she was one of five generations from her family on her baptism on that Sunday.
Speaker 1:Man, it's amazing what God does. When God calls you to get baptized, you know what he does. He uses you as an encouragement for someone else to follow Jesus in the same way. Get baptized if you've been saved. And finally and lastly, number four teach. Everybody. Say teach.
Speaker 1:The Bible says Jesus said teaching them to observe everything that I've commanded you. Behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age Bible nerd with me for a minute, as he says that teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. That word teach in the Greek is didosko. Everyone say didosko. Very good, you're either no Greek or you're speaking in tongues, one or the other, I don't know Didosko.
Speaker 1:Do you know what it means to teach someone the truth? But it also means to show someone the truth. In other words, we're called as a church, we're called as Christians, to teach people in the word of God, but we're also called to show them from our life the word of God. That's why, as a church, we're going through the whole Bible. We've gone through Genesis, exodus, leviticus, numbers, deuteronomy. We've looked at the doctrine of God, we've looked at all of the doctrine of Jesus. As we're in the middle of that series right now, and there is something about that, when we are under the word of God, together in worship, and hear me, when we're in the word of God, together in worship, and hear me when we're in the word of God together as a group, I want to encourage you, if you're not in a group, to get in a group, because there's a different context than a worship service, that you get deepened in the word of God. Do you realize that Hebrew says that some of you have been learning for too long. Hebrew says it's time for you to teach. Every time we start a new group, we see new people come, we see new people join and we see the church of Jesus Christ grow. Why? Because there's power in the Word of God.
Speaker 1:Just this week my little two-and-a-half-year-old boy, cruz first time he's ever done this, he walked. It was bedtime, he walked into his room and he handed me his children's Bible. Never done this before. He handed me his children's Bible and he's very speech. He's a little speech delayed, and so he's been struggling. He's doing a lot better lately, praise the Lord. But he hands me his children's Bible and he says daddy God, daddy, god. And I opened up his children's Bible and my boy is like he don't stop for nothing. Y'all know who he is Like he just never stops. He's running. It's like he just never stopped. He'd run around all the time. And he sat on my lap and for two nights in a row he listened to me, read his children's Bible to him, the Rhyme Bible. If you're a parent of kids, get the Rhyme Bible. It's my favorite children's Bible, the Rhyme Bible. And he listened in two nights the entire Old Testament, which was 200 pages. I'm just telling you.
Speaker 1:There's power in the word of God. There's power when you teach the word of God. There's power when you express the word of God. You share the word of God. There's power when you learn the word of God. There is power in the word of God.
Speaker 1:As disciples, we are called to be both learners and teachers. Who are you learning from and who are you leading? Who are you teaching? Because Jesus called us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that he commanded. And Jesus promised that he will be with you always, to the end of the age.
Speaker 1:You're not fulfilling the great commission alone. Jesus is with you. We are doing this together. I wanna encourage you to live for the more that you were made for your greatest mission imaginable, the Great Commission, with every head bowed and every eye closed. I just wanna ask you right now, would you just say a prayer over our church Right here, right now. Just talk to God. Say God, would you help First Baptist Church, powder Springs, to be a great commission church. Help us to go, help us to make disciples, help us to baptize, help us to teach, and I want you to pray that over your life, right now too.
Speaker 1:As a Christian, you can just tell Jesus you have all the authority, you have all the power. Help me to do this, as you've called me to do. And maybe you're here this morning and you can't pray that prayer yet, because you've not even given your life to him yet. But you can. Right now. You can give your life to Jesus and he will have you, he will receive you, he will accept you, he will save you. I can't do it and I can't pray it for you, but I can lead you through it Right here. Right now, you can pray a prayer like this to him and he will listen and I believe, if you mean it, he will save you right here, right now, today.
Speaker 1:Right now, you can say dear Jesus, I believe in you and Jesus, I need you. And you can say Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and I ask you to forgive me. And, jesus, I believe that you rose from the dead and I give my life to you. I wanna live for you, and the Bible says that if you call on him to be the Lord of your life, you will be saved. So call him. Say Jesus, be the Lord of my life and save me. I pray, and, jesus, we believe that we thank you for that truth, that promise of salvation. In Jesus' name, and all God's people said would you put your hands together this morning for anybody that gave their life to Jesus? Welcome to the family. The Bible says that heaven rejoices every time a sinner repents and give their life to him.
Speaker 1:I want to encourage us all just to stand up right now. Everybody's standing, as there is a next step card there in the seat back in front of you. And maybe you gave your life to Jesus. Maybe you need to be baptized, maybe you want to join the church, become a part of our family. Whatever it is that Jesus is calling you to do, you can always indicate that on the card, you can bring it to me, you can take it to our Next Step station right out there in our lobby. But we just want to help you in your journey, in your walk with Jesus, and I want to encourage you. You, your voice matters to God, your voice matters in the way in which that you witness, and your voice matters in the way that you worship. God is listening to your worship right now. Let's worship him together as his church and bring him all the glory that he deserves. Let's worship Jesus together.