Go Unto All the World — Matthew 28

0:12 It's a great blessing to be here with you. And I'd like to thank Samuel and Mr. Doringer up there for doing the AV. Samuel's doing double duty with the AV as well as the music. Just wanna start out this morning by saying thank you.

0:33 We just, sang the song, great is thy faithfulness. We sang a song, give thanks, and that, is something that I would definitely like to do for... Or speak to the Lord this as well as speak to you about that. Some of you here, have been very personally involved with the ministry that Miriam and I have been involved with for the last twelve years. And it's just amazing for us to recognize that it's been twelve years since we were commended into missionary service to The Philippines.

1:12 And, we wanna thank you for your prayers. We wanna thank you for your provision to help make this possible. And our testimony comes because of believers here and around the country who have sacrificially given to the Lord for our needs. It's very humbling, but amazing. Absolutely amazing.

1:37 Even our return this past May to our house on Detroit Road, we moved in starting in June. It was made possible through the kindness and generosity of believers, many of them are in this room. And some of you even helped us physically move into the house. And so we are so grateful for that. We know that the Lord is a giver of all good and perfect gifts, but he's used his body.

2:08 People with flesh and bones, right? And other believers around the country to be the hands and feet of these gifts. And we just wanna praise the Lord and thank you as Paul did the same. You might be familiar with the passage in the book of Philippians where Paul is writing from his prison cell in Rome to the church in Philippi, and he says this in Philippians four sixteen through 20. You sent a gift more than once for my deeds.

2:40 Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. But I have received everything in full and have an abundance. I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God. And my God will supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever.

3:13 Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, what a testimony you have, here at Westlake Bible Fellowship, for the last fifty plus years, you have, called believers together on Sunday mornings. You call them together on Wednesday night prayer meetings. You call them together throughout the week to study your word, to proclaim the good news, to witness wherever they are.

3:42 Lord, we're part of a legacy that, is long standing, and yet we recognize from your word that we also now have a responsibility to pass on the good news to others, and to exhort and encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ to continue this concept, this whole critical, critical idea of sharing the gospel, this commandment being fulfilled, sharing the gospel here and around the world. Lord, I pray that you would just right now bless your word, calm my nerves, help me to speak as your vessel, as your bond servant. May your word go forth. May we have hearts and minds to hear and to receive what you would speak to us today. Thank you, Lord.

5:17 And that you were guilty of the blood of Christ. You recognize that. And then by this wonderful person or these people that spoke the truth of God's word into your life, the Holy Spirit led you to repent, led you to say, I know I'm a sinner, but I also know that Jesus Christ shed his blood on the cross for my sin. And that from what I've been told, from what I've read, I am forgiven. And I will never have to carry that burden again.

5:56 And I look at the scriptures and I say to myself, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That happened, I pray, for... To you. And if it hasn't happened yet, I pray that today might be that day of salvation, that you would come to know Jesus as your savior. But why did it happen?

6:15 It happened because God so loved the world. Right? God so loved. It started with love. And how did God display that love?

6:25 He gave. He gave the greatest gift, his one and only begotten son. We've heard the verse so many times where we could just say it. Many of our children memorize it as one of the first verses they ever learn. John three sixteen, for God so loved the world.

6:45 For God so loved the world, not just me, but the world.

6:49 That what did he do? That he

6:50 gave his one and only begotten son that whoever believes in him, whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. God gave the world the greatest gift of his son, Jesus Christ. And now he has given us believers in Jesus Christ, his children, he's given us a commandment, not a suggestion, not a encouragement, but a commandment to join him in doing the same. Giving to the world His gift. Now we're not gonna give his son.

7:31 That's not something we can do. Only he could give his son. But we can give our lives because that's what Jesus did. Right? Jesus, God sent his son into the world that no one would perish, but what did it cost him?

7:43 It cost him his life. What does it cost us to be obedient to what God has now called us to do? To give the world his gift of eternal life through his son, we need to respond. And another verse that I'm sure you've heard many times in Matthew chapter 28, the last chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus, as he's saying farewell, the resurrected Lord is saying farewell to his church.

8:13 He's not saying, see you later. You're on your own. No. Here's what he says. Verse 19 of Matthew chapter 28.

8:25 Go. Go therefore and make disciples. Ah, we have a job to do. Go make disciples. Where?

8:34 Of all the nations. Baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit. Verse 20, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you. He didn't stop there. He says, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

9:11 Go make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit, and teaching them. This is what happened to you. Somebody took the time to tell you the truth. Someone went, whether they just came to church, whether they met you over coffee over coffee or or a meal or taught you in Sunday school or Awana, But it happened. If you have been received the gift of salvation, it occurred in your life.

9:47 And the Lord is commanding us to do likewise. There are other scriptures that reiterate this. Again, very popular, but how often do we really let them sink into our lives? Mark chapter 16 verse 15. Again, the end of the gospel of Mark.

10:07 Jesus said to his disciples, go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Acts chapter one verse eight. Now this, we're leaving the gospels behind. We're going into the acts of the apostles. But in chapter one, we still have the resurrected Lord here on earth.

10:29 And this is that time where he he actually ascends into heaven. But before he ascended into heaven, he spoke to those who were with him. And he said, more specifically, where to go? More specifically, where to go? In Acts chapter one verse eight, Jesus said, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.

11:07 So here he's added to the great commission, we call... We... That's not in scripture, by the way, the great commission. That's just something that we've mankind has come up with to say, wow, this is a commission or a commandment to do this. And that's where we even get the word mission.

11:27 From the commission, we have this mission that we even have this whole concept of missiology and obeying the great commission. But where does he say to go and how does he say to do it? Well, first of all, he says, he gives you the power source. It's not on your own. It's not your charisma, your creativity, your experience, your training.

11:55 It separates all that out because it's easy to say, well, they're the professional. I have the privilege of attending Friday morning bible study with businessmen from all over Northeastern Ohio. It started out with one man who got... Heard the gospel of the Billy Graham crusade. He got together with another guy who happened to be a missionary to Thailand for over twenty years.

12:25 And that man discipled him. And he says, you know what I'd like to do? I'd like to change my business. I'd like to change my business. I'm going to offer in my company, in my own conference room, a bible study.

12:41 Started out with three men that got together and studied God's word. Over a 100 men gathered together every Friday morning at a conference center just down the street on Detroit Road. A 100 plus every Friday morning at 07:30. It's absolutely phenomenal. And there are nonbelievers there.

13:04 There are solid believers there. There are people that came to Christ through that ministry, and they all are seeking. But one time, a man stood up and he spoke back to the speaker and he said, you know what? It's good. You're a professional.

13:26 You're a specialist. So here's how I look at it, says he. I'm I'm going to meet people, and then I'm gonna take them to somebody like you. Now is that wrong? Not really.

13:41 Not really. Is that wrong? I mean, goal is still to lead them to Christ. Right? But what he was doing was saying, and I'm not gonna take the time to read this for myself.

14:02 He works through his word, and he works through other believers who exhort and encourage and guide and direct and hopefully disciple you. So he doesn't leave us alone. He says you will receive power. The Holy Spirit's gonna come upon you. Then with that power and that guidance by the Holy Spirit too, you will be my witnesses.

14:25 Where? Well, that's up to the Holy Spirit. Yes? It it might be that, well, I actually grew up in Calcutta. So maybe I'll be ministering in Calcutta, India.

14:38 Or maybe I grew up in Germany and I'll be ministering in Heidelberg. Or maybe I grew up in Ohio in The United States Of America, and I'll be ministering right there. Well, that would be just like Jesus speaking to the people before he ascended. Where were they? They were in Judea somewhere.

15:00 They were in Jerusalem. And so he starts with their hometown. He says, how about Jerusalem? You'll be my witnesses here. Maybe you'll venture out.

15:10 You'll be in Judea. Still your comfort zone. You can still speak the language. But how about going south? Well, if the Holy Spirit leads you South and you're in...

15:21 I'm sorry. North. North. I gotta get my bible geography going here. Down here is Jerusalem.

15:28 Here's Samaria. Here's Galilee. Jesus grew up here. Jesus was crucified here. Jesus led the woman at the well to salvation here, where people don't wanna go.

15:42 They go all the way around Samaria to stay away from them because those are the half breeds. Those are the lowlife. But Jesus says, that's where you'll be my witnesses if the Holy Spirit leads you there. And the last one covers everything else, even to the remotest part of the earth. If that's where the Lord is leading you, maybe Mexico.

16:05 Maybe from Mexico to here. For those on Zoom, we're so thrilled to have Chelly here from the mountains of Mexico. And this is again where we can stop and say, well, that's for somebody else. I'm gonna... I'm asking you today, in the name of Jesus Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, will you allow him to speak to you this morning through his word to respond?

16:36 I'm not telling you how. I'm gonna give you some options. But I'm gonna ask you, even today, to say, that was so cool that Jeremy just got back from Mexico. Oh, Jeremy, I can't wait to hear about that. I'm sincerely looking forward to that.

16:49 Okay? Or, I'm so excited that Timothy Meng is counseling at teen two. I'm looking forward to hearing, what was it like? I got my tail kicked five years ago when I counseled at teen two. And I'm saying, I'm never counseling again.

17:06 Seriously, it was that terrible. Was a traumatic experience for me. And I counseled probably 100 times in my life. But I really got clobbered that particular week five years ago. Anyway, one other verse.

17:22 One other verse that, again, is probably pretty common. But with the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit. We turn to John chapter 20. John chapter 20. Jesus again is in his...

17:35 He's in his latter ministry. And he's already been to the cross. The tomb is empty. He's got the disciples all together. They've locked themselves into a room because of fear of the Jews.

18:01 Can you imagine the scenario? And yet the one who they thought was gonna be the savior died. They arrested him right in front of us. They beat him up. They whipped him.

18:14 He looked like fucking hamburger up there. Then they nailed him to a cross. But this morning, there were some women that had been at the tomb. And they said he was alive. And then Jesus appeared to them, including Thomas, which we heard about earlier today.

18:41 In that context, in that context, actually it was before was there. I'm sorry, before darling Thomas was there. But in this context, verse 21, we read this. Jesus therefore said to them, again, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.

19:13 It's a verse that we've read probably a thousand times. But was he just talking to those disciples? No. He was talking to the leaders of the church. Universal.

19:31 Which two thousand years ago is all over the world. And the same declaration is being met. The example, again, has already been given to us. God sent his son as a gift. He gave.

19:51 We are now sent, just like God sent his son to earth. We have now been sent by the savior. Jesus himself. Just as the father has sent me, I also send you. So how does Jesus do that now?

20:23 They didn't say, hey, you know what? I'm gonna apply to join this particular mission, and I have an interest to go to that place, and I hope that I can really make a good presentation before the mission board, and they'll accept me, and I get to go. And then I'm going to go raise thousands of dollars. I will go and raise it. Why am I saying these terms?

20:47 Because I've heard it. That's not what I'm talking about. That's a system that man has come up with. Okay? That's a system that man has come up with.

20:56 Does it still work? Well, what did Paul say when he was in prison one time? There are people out there preaching the gospel for God's glory. And there are people that are preaching the gospel to spite me. But I don't care as long as the gospel's going out.

21:11 And maybe these models that you have heard of or you've seen somewhere in your life where they say, well you have to do this, you have to do this, it's all very regimented. Does the gospel still go out? Yeah. But what I wanna point out to you right now is how did it get done in scripture, and how can it still be done today? So it requires faith, and it requires the Holy Spirit's involvement.

21:40 In Acts chapter 13, just the first three verses, we read how the first missionaries went out. Acts 13, first three verses. First church that's mentioned in the scriptures was in Antioch. Now there were verse one. Now there were at Antioch in the church that was there prophets and teachers.

22:05 Listen to this list all star team here, Barnabas and Simeon who was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul. And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me. The Holy Spirit said that. Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul, for the work to which I have called them. So who called Barnabas and Saul?

22:44 Did the church? No. The Holy Spirit. Was it because of their interest in a particular area? Geographical area?

22:55 No. Their their particular interest in a people group? No. It was by the Holy Spirit's leading, and it says, they have work to do, the work to which I have called them. And in obedience, verse three, then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

23:19 It didn't say we're gonna have a retirement plan for you, and you're gonna have an insurance policy, and you'll be able to do this for twenty something years, and then by that time, no. There was nothing structural there. It was go in faith. How did they do it? Verse four, so being sent out by the Holy Spirit, yeah, another reminder, they went.

23:44 And they went a lot of places. They went a lot of places. And we call them the first missionary journey and the second missionary journey, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Right? And this was the beginning of, it was the beginning of the fulfillment of this great commission to the world.

24:10 Prior to that, it had been even Jesus said, I just came to the lost sheep of Israel. And yet, when the woman from the heathen area, the Phoenician lady, who said, But even the crumbs that fall off the table, the dogs get to eat. And he said, Your faith has been displayed to me, and what you have desired is yours. So Jesus responded to those who were outside, but now it's being sent to the Gentiles. So, how has it manifested itself over the centuries?

25:22 And it just becomes a job. Just becomes an occupation. It can even become just an adventure. So what happens then is the recipients, people from around the world, start to combine the gospel with what does a missionary do? How do they behave?

25:47 How are they treating my culture? How are they treating my language? How do they treat me? To the point that back in '19, '71, I think it was, I I read this briefly, there was a very powerful church leader from another country that said, missionary, go home. What came out of that challenge was, maybe you've heard of this, the Lausanne Conference.

26:22 Lausanne, Switzerland, 1974 was the location where thousands of evangelical leaders from around the world gathered together to discuss this problem. What is the role of evangelism and the church universal? They called it the Luzon Congress. And according to their website says the Lausanne Covenant, which came out of this first Congress, is widely regarded as one of the most significant documents in modern church history. Again, the Lausanne Covenant.

26:59 Emerging from the first Lausanne Congress in 1974 with John Stott as its chief architect, it served as a great rallying call to the Evangelical Church around the world. It defined what it means to be evangelical and challenged Christians to work together to make Jesus Christ known throughout the world. It is a covenant with one another and a covenant with God himself. And I'm gonna read to you the portion under the heading, the church and evangelism that was written in this Lausanne Covenant. Quote, we affirm that Christ sends his redeemed people into the world as the father sent him.

27:49 John 20 verse 21. We just read it. Yes? We confirm this, and that this calls for a similar deep and costly penetration of the world. Think about what Jesus gave up.

28:05 First of all, he gave up heaven. He was born into a poor family. He humbled himself to be taken, arrested, beaten, mocked, scourged, nailed to a cross. This is the God of the universe, the creator. That's called deep and costly penetration of the world.

28:32 The covenant goes on to say, we need to break out of our ecclesiastical ghettos and permeate non Christian society. In the church's mission of sacrificial service, evangelism is primary. World evangelization requires the whole church, capital c, to take the whole gospel, capital g, to the whole world, capital w. The church is at the very center of God's cosmic purpose and is his appointed means of spreading the gospel. Acts chapter 13.

29:24 Mr. Reeder used to get involved with sending satellites up into orbit. They had to get launched. I asked him one time, how many launches? I don't know.

29:36 I don't remember how many said he witnessed down in Florida. But that's an exciting time. Launch 10, nine, you know the drill, right? And to see all that fire come out of the bottom of the rocket and smoke just billowing and out of the midst of this goes this cylinder with a point, with a mission. Same thing.

30:06 God sent his son with a mission. He fulfilled it. It is finished. Is that where it stopped? No.

30:15 The church was formed. And what is the church's role? Empowering us with the truth of God's word to obey, to go. Where that is, it's up to the Holy Spirit. But what's our responsibility?

30:38 To be willing to go. The fulfillment of this covenant in the Great Commission is displayed in thousands of ways every day, locally and around the world. I just want to challenge you this morning to be sensitive to leading the Holy Spirit. This platform was right over here back in 2009. I remember it very well.

31:04 I was sitting right over there. 2009, that's a long time ago. It was an interesting summer. Miriam and I had been really moved by the Holy Spirit. We've been praying about something's going on in our life.

31:19 It actually started bothering us, if I could use that term with a respectful way, back in 2008. And we started saying, okay, Lord, we think you want us to do something different. Alright? So we came to the summer of two thousand and nine, and we made a commitment to the Lord and said, we are going to do whatever you lead us to do. I am not going to do my routine, which was I I I taught a summer band program for about nine week...

31:45 Six six or so weeks of the summer. I made extra money, helped us to go on vacation. And then we said, no. Let's commit the entire summer to the Lord. And it was very interesting because Andy and Kim were two of the people, I don't know if you even knew that, but it was right soon after we made that commitment that I got a call from Andy, Todd, I'd like you to come down and direct Junior Boys Week at Mountaintop Youth Camp.

32:11 And I said, Andy, I've already been down there on vacation when there's no campers there. You know, or my kids have been down there, I know, they were in homeschool weeks, but I've never even been there to see a camp in action. And he said, don't worry about it. The director that usually is there is my brother. He is very, busy with some things right now.

32:29 He's still gonna be there as a counselor. He'll help you. I'll help you. Kim will help you. And Miriam will be there and she'll help you.

32:35 Okay? So we said, alright. Here we go. We're going to go down to North Carolina for a week. Well, it was also back when we had Vacation Bible School and I was the director and we had lots of people here that came to hear the good news and have a lot of fun.

32:52 And I also had the privilege of going over to Camp Lilo Lake during pre teen three week and worked with Gary Foster as his assistant director. We were gone a lot. And yet, there was this one particular Sunday where they said, we're asking this person that was gonna preach to step aside. We heard that there's a missionary that's gonna be nearby, and he's gonna come and share his ministry. Now the old timers knew all about this guy, but us young folks, you know, I was young back then.

33:23 Okay? Anyway, we didn't know about this person. Right? Oh, he was from New Zealand. All the way from New Zealand.

33:29 He's here in Westlake, Ohio. Well, it's because he married a woman from Erie, Pennsylvania. Now, Erie, Pennsylvania to me back in that time was like Southern Egypt, know, far, far away. And yet, it's actually only a two hour drive. Anyway, this guy, his name is Dave Harvey.

33:45 And he and his wife had both come from Erie, Pennsylvania and New Zealand to a place called The Philippines in 1968. He came to plant churches. She came to teach biology at a school for missionary kids called Faith Academy. They met at church. They fell in love.

34:09 They got married. They had two girls, and they continued to serve the Lord. They planted churches. They started a camp like Camp Leila. They did Christian literature distribution.

34:24 You've heard of Our Daily Bread? Well, after it's printed here in The United States, a year later, take the same stuff and they translate it into Tagalog. Another year later, they translate it into Chinese. And his ministry oversaw that. All kinds of interesting ministries and he's standing up here and he's talking about all these different facets of his ministry and then he mentions this thing called Faith Academy and his wife you know she taught there for about five years and then she quit helped raise her daughters, they all attended and graduated from there.

34:54 And then she was on the board for twenty five more years. Now you may say, how boring is that? But for me being a teacher, that was interesting. And for us, being very sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, it was like, I call it the laser beam. And it pierced my heart.

35:17 I couldn't do anything. Except think about this place called Faith Academy. I looked it up online. I asked Dave Bingham, who knew Ruth Harvey really well. He grew up with her in Erie, Pennsylvania.

35:32 Dave, do you think I could maybe talk to Dave Harvey? And he goes, Todd, he's only two hours away. You could go see him this afternoon. And that's what happened. Just to fast forward, what occurred during that message and within the following twelve months was the work of Holy Spirit.

35:51 How did he move? He moved through the church. He moved through the elders. He moved through confirmation after one person after another, and removing obstacles. And eventually, Miriam and I were commended to join the Harbys in The Philippines with the work of the Lord there.

36:12 Twelve months from that day. We were in The Philippines. That's fast forward. That is not normal. That is not normal.

36:22 But it is a testimony of what God can do, if you're willing. It doesn't mean you're gonna go to The Philippines. It just means that he can work, if you're willing, through you to do something. Now what do we do? Well, that doesn't matter right now.

37:06 Moses was 80 when God called him in the wilderness. I'm not there yet. Timothy was called by Paul, by the Holy Spirit, by Paul. And he is the example that I'd like to close with. Can we turn please to Acts chapter, excuse me,

37:38 16.

37:42 Acts chapter 16. Paul's on his second missionary journey. That's what historians and theologians call it. But after God called him to go and he got persecuted, he got beat up, but he planted churches. And then he came back and he reported to the church at Antioch.

38:05 And he went out again. This time, he took somebody different with him. Instead of Barnabas, it was Silas. And in chapter 16, we read this. And Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra and behold a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer but his father was a Greek and he was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium.

38:36 Paul wanted this man to go with him and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those parts for they all knew that his father was a Greek. So here we have the missionary journey number two and we just added someone to go. His name's Timothy. We read about Timothy in the rest of the book of Acts. But can you also turn with me to one Timothy, the letter that was actually written to Timothy by Paul?

39:07 And in one Timothy, the first letter, chapter one, verses three and four, it gives you a little insight of what Timothy did. And Paul wrote in verse three, as I urge you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus in order that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. I'll just stop there. So this young man named Timothy has now, in a very short period of time, become a leader in the church. To the point that Paul says, I'm leaving you in charge of one of the most influential churches on his missionary journeys, Ephesus.

39:55 Some other big names that Ephesus was Apollo's. And here's Timothy. And what is Timothy charged to do? Instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. Wow.

40:07 So we kinda get the idea how Paul would really want to make sure that Timothy was not timid... That Timothy was not shy. That Timothy wouldn't just point at his youth and let other people, oh, you're just a young guy. What do you know? Instead, in God's economy, in God and the Holy Spirit idea of the value of experience, of Timothy being with Paul and Silas on this missionary journey.

40:44 That at this point, Paul can say, I'm leaving you in charge. You're even gonna exhort some of the older men in this church. What can we do? What can we do? I put in we here.

41:01 Because just because God has called Miriam and Todd for twelve years to The Philippines doesn't mean, well, put a fork in that and say, That's done. That's not it. Just because Ray has been to Mexico, if I remember, Devin shared with me, '14, '15, '17, '18, '19, '21, and '22. Did I get it right? Something like that.

41:27 Alright. Does that mean that he's only gonna go to Mexico from now on? What if the Lord calls Ray to do something different? What if the Lord is calling Denzel Boss not to be whatever he does at Camp Leilwe? I mean, if you're moving, God can redirect.

41:47 Right? And I'm not saying that God's redirecting me. I'm just saying I don't wanna put God in a box. I don't wanna put the Holy Spirit in a box. But what can you be involved with?

41:58 Here's some examples that I just thought of. Go to Mexico next year if Ray does go back. How about go down to Edgewater Park with Christian Eichley? Enjoy a picnic? Share the gospel.

42:13 He'll show you how to do it. You won't be alone. How about join Don and Kathy Morris at a local elementary school where they do a bible club? Just a few hours a week. Hey, get to know some little kids and teach them the gospel.

42:29 We don't have a wanna here anymore. Take it on the road. How about talk to Jim Bingham? Say, Jim, do we have a Sunday school class? Well, yeah, actually we do.

42:39 Do we have kids? Well, we do have some. Well, can I teach that class once a month? Or maybe one month every quarter or something like that? How about talk to Denzel?

42:50 I know that there are lot of people there right now at Liolai, but they still need staffer next week at Camp Liolai. Chris Schroeder will be here in two weeks. Do you know what Chris Schroeder does? He trains people from all over the country, maybe even all over the world, that come to his place in Richmond, Michigan, a three hour drive on how to present the gospel in public settings. It's called the Ezekiel Project School of Evangelism.

43:16 Pretty fancy. They just shrunk it down to Pepsi. Say, hey, Chris. Can I check that out? Andy.

43:25 Andy Morris. Every year, he's like, I'm looking for people to help me with Vacation Bible School. I bet you tell them now. I'm I'm in for next year. You can prepare ahead of time.

43:35 Scott Doan would be happy to talk to you about how to get involved with Hideout Pines Ranch, and it doesn't have to be just the two weeks that they meet. And how about this one? How about this one? Offer to encourage a young believer that you would disciple them. Because evangelism is the beginning.

43:59 Discipleship is the building block. What did what did Jesus say? Go and make disciples, and baptize and teach. We just kinda use the go teach thing. We, you know, that discipleship thing, that takes time.

44:19 That takes energy. But that's what we all have. That's the sacrifice. Do you do with your time? There are many other opportunities.

44:28 I'd be glad to tell you about all kinds of stuff, especially with CMML and, you know, I brought my Missions Magazine.

44:35 That's not what the Lord

44:36 was leading this morning. Just want to close. The Lord never gave an ending date. I'll say that again. He never gave an ending date.

44:55 He gave a commandment. What do you say? Go, make disciples, baptize, teach. And what was the last sentence? And, lo, I am with you.

45:11 Always, even to the end of the age. So I guess that's the ending. When the Lord comes back, meets us in the clouds, and takes his church with us, game over. Eternal life beginning. May the lord guide you as you seek him and may his harvest of souls be plentiful.

46:11 Thank you that you're not ever going to leave me, and that your Holy Spirit will empower me. It's not on me, it's on you. I just have to trust you by faith. Lord, thank you again for this opportunity to serve. And we pray your blessing upon Westlake Bible Fellowship and the body and the believers here.

46:34 In Jesus name we pray. Amen.