That's always a good thing.
And I'm excited for all that it brings about.
But most importantly in the life of our church,
this month is a month where we focus on missions,
specifically what God is doing in worldwide missions.
God's not just working in Finley, God's working everywhere.
Because every local church to have a ministry locally,
but also regionally and nationally and internationally.
And I don't wanna take for granted
that everybody that's coming to our church
understands how we do missions
and how God's called us to do missions.
So you've heard about the missions conference
that we're gonna be having all day on Sunday, October 29th.
And then that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night,
the 30th through November 1st.
And we want you to come to that.
I want you to prioritize that in your family,
with your church family.
And I think that it would be so amazing
if we had as many people that came to the missions conference
as what comes on the Sunday morning.
Wishful thinking, but I believe it's that important.
I believe a missions conference, at least at our church,
this is the way we approach it.
It's a business meeting on the fate of the world
and what we think about the fate of the world.
And we know that the fate of the world's in God's hands,
but we have a stewardship to get the gospel
to the nations, we believe that.
And we have so many new people coming.
I believe it's important for everyone to know
not only how we do missions,
but how you can be involved in it.
Now, I believe this is crucial.
I believe right now is crucial, right now.
You're like, Pastor Ben, did you think last year was crucial?
Yeah, 100%. But has anybody been watching the news?
I believe the great commandment
and the great commission is our mandate as a church.
And we're gonna look today at several passages
where you're gonna see that God's desire
for every biblical local church
is to be a great commission church.
And that that is our mission.
We glorify God by making disciples of all nations
and that's important. Who believes that's important?
Cool, I convinced about two thirds of you, so stick with me.
I also believe that the world is growing
in its capacity for evil.
People's hearts have to be changed
and the only way for that to happen from the inside out
is people coming to know Christ.
In our own state, there's a vote coming up on November 7th.
Have you guys heard about this?
Yes.
This, what's being voted on,
the proposal that's being made
is an amendment to our constitution
that does away with any regulation on abortion.
It will make abortion up to nine months legal.
It will make the abortionist the final say
in who can get an abortion.
And it takes away parental notification
regarding any reproductive decision
of their minor children.
I don't believe that this is a political issue.
I believe it's a moral issue.
And so, grab a sign.
If you wanna be convinced of what needs to happen,
go to the table in the back, it's there.
But I say all that to say,
we need to be involved in that church,
but for people's hearts to be changed on issues like this,
they have to have the Holy Spirit inside of them.
And so we have a wonderful chance
to make a difference in this vote.
People tend to think some of these issues
are political issues, but they're not political issues.
This issue is a moral issue.
So I believe, why is this time so important
in terms of worldwide missions, missions at home,
missions regionally, missions nationally,
missions internationally, and what do I even be my missions?
That's what I wanna talk to you about today.
I believe it's important because it's literally
the marching orders that Jesus gave to the church
and by definition to our church.
I believe that the world is growing
in its participation in growing evil,
and I believe this, the time is getting short.
If we've watched the news in the last few days and weeks,
you've seen several events coming together.
You see China, Russia, Ukraine, Iran, Israel,
the Gaza Strip, the Holy Land,
these are all parts and players
of what the Bible foretells
is gonna happen in the future.
I'm not saying that what's happening right now is,
I'm saying all of those players
are who the Bible talks about in times.
And anyone who's familiar with biblical prophecy
knows that these players are all a part
of what the Bible predicts will happen in the future.
For more information on that,
I did a seven week series on Wednesday nights last year
on what Jesus said would happen in the end times
and what he called his all of it discourse.
The passages are pretty amazing.
And I made a QR code.
If you point your smartphone at that,
and it'll come up, on the camera app it'll come up,
and you hit the link, it'll take you to our website,
and there's a seven week study
on what Jesus has said is gonna happen in the end time.
So at least two of you got that, that's good.
Praise the Lord.
If you go to our website and look up
the Christ return living with the end in mind,
you can find more information on that.
It's amazing how relevant the Bible is.
And by the way, the Bible that makes predictions
about the future has an incredible history
of making predictions that already happened in the past.
And so if it can be trusted
for what it already foretold and came to pass,
you can trust it about the future, make sense?
Okay, so I believe we need to talk about this
because it's our mandate,
because the world's growing in evil,
and because we don't know how long we have.
There's one thing you can't do in heaven.
Share the gospel.
And so, those who know Christ will spend forever together
with Christ in eternity,
but there's something we'll not be able to do
after this life,
and that's make disciples of Jesus Christ
through preaching the gospel to the nations.
This is what God has called us to do in this time,
so we have no time to waste.
We must embrace this mission locally,
regionally, and yes, globally,
if we're going to do what God's called us to do,
what we've been commanded to do.
The days are evil, the time is short,
so it's critical at this time that we're all in
when it comes to being involved in worldwide missions,
but how can we be involved?
Well, how can our church make an impact on the world
from Finley, Ohio?
How can our church make an impact,
and how can you be a part of what God has called us
to do together?
Well, every believer can understand the how of missions
by understanding the biblical pattern of missions
in the local church.
God set up a pattern,
and I want to point to that pattern today
because it's a pattern that has worked.
This in some way is how you got,
if you believe the gospel,
it came to you by this pattern happening, okay?
And I want to show you that we are involved
in this particular mission,
and there's a biblical pattern about how the gospel
gets all over the world.
And so, what's the biblical pattern?
Well, let's talk about it.
First, I want you to see this.
Jesus Christ was sent on the Father's mission
in the Father's authority.
Jesus Christ was sent on the Father's mission
in the Father's authority.
This kind of touches on where we've been talking about
the last couple of weeks in the book of Hebrews.
God went to a guy named Abraham,
and made Abraham the father of a great nation,
and this is what he said,
and maybe this might sound familiar
if you've been here the last couple of weeks.
He said, now the Lord had said unto Abraham,
get Abraham, get thee out of thy country,
and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house,
unto a land that I will show thee,
and I will make of thee a great nation,
and I will bless thee, and make thy name great,
and now shall it be a blessing,
and I will bless them that bless thee,
and curse them that curseeth thee,
and in thee shall all the families,
all the ethnos, all the nations,
the family, they use that word in the Greek
in the New Testament when it quotes that,
all the ethnic groups of the earth will be blessed,
all the families, all the tribes,
all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
This is what we've been studying.
God's plan for Israel was that this nation
would be the conduit through which
the redemption of mankind would be made possible.
God intended for Abraham to be blessed,
to be a blessing to the earth.
How do you guys understand that when you got saved,
you were blessed to be a blessing?
That's what Abraham was.
He was blessed so that he could be a blessing.
How?
Well, through God's revelation of his law,
that led to the revelation of his son.
Jesus Christ was sent, made identifiable
by being the Jewish Messiah,
the one who was prophesied would come,
the son of Abraham, the son of David.
He was sent on the Father's mission.
He even said so.
We read of this in John after he died,
after he was buried and rose again from the dead.
He came to his disciples and in John chapter 20,
look at verse 19, it'll be on the screen.
Then the same day at evening,
being the first day of the week,
when the doors were shut,
where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews,
you know why?
Because if they could kill Jesus, they could kill us.
So we're really freaked out.
The disciples were in our room locked up.
And in the middle of that, verse 19,
came Jesus and stood in the midst and said,
peace be unto you.
You know how he said peace be unto you?
Because he scared him.
Because he appeared miraculously right in the middle of the room.
Peace be unto you.
Anybody ever get scared by somebody?
That's one of my favorite hobbies.
Sometimes I'll be like studying,
I've been sitting too long and I'll walk around
and I hear Rhonda coming around the corner
with her podcast going on her speaker.
And I'm like, she's coming right for me.
She comes around, Rhonda, it's amazing.
We may need a new person one day, but oh well.
Just shocked him, peace be unto you.
And when he had said, he showed unto them his hands
and his sight, why was he showing them that?
I'm the same one who was just crucified.
And here I am guys, risen.
Then he said this, I love this, what it says in verse 20,
then were the disciples glad when they saw it.
Who would love to see that video?
You wanna watch those reunion videos
of the military guys coming home
and the wife turns around or the daughter or the son turns.
Anybody cry at one of those videos?
Like between that and the puppies that need adopted.
I'm crying all the time.
These guys thought Jesus was dead
and then there he is alive and they were glad.
And then he said this, then said Jesus to them again,
peace be unto you.
As my father has sent me, even so send I you.
Was Jesus on a mission?
He came to seek and to save that which was lost.
That was the commission from the father to the son.
It was also the commission that the son gave to the disciples.
Whose authority did Jesus come with?
The father's.
And the father's.
Certainly he had his own authority.
Here we see that he appealed to his father's sending.
That leads to the second pattern.
Not only was the father the one who sent Jesus,
but Jesus Christ sent the disciples
on the mission with his authority.
Verse 16 of Matthew 28, it'll be on the screen.
Then the 11 disciples, why were there 11?
Judas had betrayed Jesus.
The 11 disciples went away in the galley
into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
This is after his death row and resurrection.
This is right before he's leaving them to go to heaven.
Verse 17.
And when they saw him, they worshiped him,
but some doubted.
What were they doubting?
They were not doubting that Jesus was God.
If you read about what Jesus did with these disciples
before this moment, not only had he appeared to them
and showed him his side and showed him his hands,
he had also done a Bible study with them
where he walked through the Old Testament
and taught them how the Old Testament speaks of him.
So they were not doubting that Jesus was who he said he was.
Why they were doubting was this,
he kept telling them he was leaving.
And he kept saying to them, I'm sending you,
I'm gonna leave and you're gonna be sent.
And so they're going, ah!
I just made that echo.
They're like, they're scared.
They're not scared because Jesus is sending him.
They're scared because they think Jesus won't be
with them anymore because he's going back to be with the Father.
Here's what he says.
In that moment when they're doubting,
Jesus uses this incredible word, verse 18,
and Jesus came and said, speaking to them, saying,
all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
The word translated power here is the word exusea.
It has the idea of an authoritative power.
Not only does it reference the ability
to do something through empowerment,
it references the permission to do something
through authority.
Does that make sense?
Not only were they gonna be empowered to do
what God's called him to do, listen,
if God calls you to do something,
he'll empower you to do it.
But he was also saying, you're gonna be given authority
to go do what I'm about to tell you to do.
What does he tell him?
Verse 19, go ye therefore, go ye therefore under my power,
under my authority,
and teach the word is methetes, methetusate,
make disciples of all nations.
How do you do that?
Baptizing them in the name of the Father
and the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe or to obey all things,
whatsoever I have commanded you.
Now here's the cool part.
And lo, I am with you always.
And now this is where you go, well,
he was talking to disciples.
What is, how does this apply to us?
Well, he says, I'm gonna be with you always,
even unto the end of the world.
The word for world is the word ion.
It could also mean age to the end of time.
So was he just talking to the disciples?
How long did they live?
30, 40, 20 years, not long.
What is he saying?
I'm gonna be with everybody that this commission relates to
and who does that relate to?
By saying that he is with them always,
he's saying he's with us always,
that, and that authority has been handed down
from Jesus through evangelism to discipleship,
all the way to us.
The one thing we're authorized to do
is evangelism and discipleship.
No one said amen.
The one thing you're authorized to do
if you know Christ is your savior
is to evangelize and disciple.
Thank you for amen.
That's awesome.
This is what he's told us to do.
We're authorized, we're going out under his authority
and his power to teach people to meet Jesus
and to teach people to follow him in obedience.
So what did the disciples do?
Well, that's where we see the third part of the pattern.
The disciples led people to Christ,
baptized people into local churches, assemblies,
and disciple them in the context of those local churches.
Well, prove it to me, Pastor Ben.
Cool, Acts chapter two.
Here's what it says, verse 42.
Actually, it's not on the screen,
but go there in your Bible real quick
because I want you to see Acts chapter two.
I started at verse 41,
but you really have to go back
to verse 32.
37.
Peter and the disciples were filled
with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
This is after Jesus had left.
They began to speak in tongues.
You go back and read those tongues.
There were known languages as they spoke.
People from every nation and tribe and tongue that were there
heard what they were saying in their own language.
Have you ever been overseas for any amount of time
and you haven't heard your language spoken
and then someone three aisles over at the grocery store
says something in American English?
Does it get your attention?
You know why it's your heart language.
It's the language that your mom and dad spoke to you.
It's the language that you grew up with.
And so when Peter stands up and he starts to speak,
they're hearing in their language.
And they're like, how has this happened?
These guys must be drunk.
That's what they say.
And Peter says, we're not drunk like you supposed.
This is what the Bible prophesied would happen
at the end of the Old Testament is what he ends up saying.
And he tells them about the prophecy coming to be
in front of their own eyes.
And he gives them the gospel and he tells them about Jesus.
He says, the one you Jesus who you Christ crucified,
God raised from the dead.
So they hear that, they believe it, they believe,
they know that Jesus claimed to be Messiah.
They believe he claimed to be Messiah.
They say, okay, what do we do?
And in verse number 37, it says,
verse 36,
Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly
that God hath made the same Jesus who ye crucified both
Lord and Christ.
Don't you want to say that to Israel today?
This one that you crucified, God has made Lord and Christ.
Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.
Verse 37,
Send unto Peter and the rest of the apostles men
and brethren, what shall we do?
Then Peter said unto them,
Repent and be baptized every one of you
in the name of Jesus Christ for their emission of sins.
And he shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost
for the promises unto you, your children,
and to all that are far off even as many as the Lord
our God shall call.
And with many other words that he testified in exhort,
saying save yourself from this untoward generation.
They ask, what do we do?
And he says essentially what the great commission says,
you need to repent, get saved and be baptized,
become a disciple, evangelism, a discipleship.
That's what he told him to do.
And then what did they do?
Verse 41,
Here's what we get to the screen.
Then they that gladly received his word,
they got saved, were baptized.
And the same day they were added unto them
about 3,000 souls.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine,
fellowship and breaking of bread and in prayers.
And fear came upon every soul.
Many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
And all that believed were together
and had all things in common.
They were all in the temple,
and they continued daily with one accord in the temple
and breaking bread from house to house.
Beneath their meat with gladness and singlets of heart,
praising God and having favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to the church how often?
Daily, isn't that awesome?
Daily such as should be saved.
As you've heard me say so many times,
the work of Jesus and the work of the early church
was to reach people, to disciple people
and to send people out to minister.
And as the church did this locally,
something amazing happened.
And here's the fourth part of the pattern.
Number four, God called people out of local churches
who were discipled and leading in those local churches
to go plant churches around the world.
That's what happened.
As people got saved, as people were discipled,
as they began to minister and to take leadership roles,
God used that experience that was happening
in their local context and said,
hey, it's time to go somewhere else to do the same thing.
Acts 13, verse one, it'll be on your screen.
This is an example of it.
It's not the only example of it, but it's an example of it.
Remember what I'm telling you, how does missions happen?
How does worldwide missions happen?
How does the gospel get from Jerusalem
in the first century to Judea, Samaria,
and to the uttermost parts of the earth?
How did it get to Finley?
And how does the gospel get back to where it needs to go?
Well, people need to be saved.
People need to be discipled.
Churches need to be planted.
So salvation and discipleship happens
by Christians who were discipled in local churches.
That's what happens.
Then number four, God calls people out of those local churches
who were discipled and leading in those local churches
to go plant churches around the world.
Verse one, chapter 13 acts.
Now there were in the church that was at Antioch,
certain prophets and teachers as Barnabas and Simeon,
that was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene,
and Manian, which has been brought up
with Herod the Chetrarch and Saul.
Now here's what's amazing.
At this point, the gospel had gotten from Jerusalem
and Judea, and now it's in Antioch.
And when you read those names, were those all Jewish people?
You're like, I don't know, Pastor Ben,
you're supposed to be preaching the message, you tell me.
They're not, they're not all Jewish.
Some of them are.
Simon was from Niger, you know where that is?
Africa.
Lucius of Cyrene, that's Greek,
Manian, which had been brought up with Herod the Chetrarch.
Who is Herod?
Roman.
Okay, these are, is the gospel going beyond Judaism?
It's going beyond the Jew to the Gentile.
And here are a bunch of people who are ministering
the people in Antioch cross-culturally.
And then it says one more, and?
Who's the last one in verse one?
You see that?
Saul, later called Paul.
As they ministered to the Lord and fasted,
the Holy Ghost said, separate me, Barnabas and Saul,
for the work where unto I have called them.
The word here for separate means set them aside.
Now here's a question.
What were they doing when this happened?
Were they in a local church?
Yes.
Were they ministering in that local church?
Yeah.
What were they doing in that local church?
Can I tell you they were reaching people,
teaching people, ministering to people.
Then the Holy Spirit leads the church and leads these men
to do something.
He says separate unto me.
He says send them.
Send them.
You're like, Pastor Ben, I didn't see send in that verse.
Well, look at the next two verses.
It was time for them to leave.
It's time for them to go.
Look at verse three.
And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on
them, they, talking about that local church in Antioch,
what did they do?
They sent them away.
So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost,
and of course by the local church.
And from thence they sailed, departed unto Celusia,
and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.
Two words are used here for each time it says sent.
In verse three where it says sent, the word is apaluo.
It has the idea of being released.
So it's like, let them go.
Separate unto me, Paul and Barnabas, let them go.
In verse four, the word sent is ech pimpoh.
It has the idea of being dispatched,
or like it says here, being sent forth.
And sending feels like both.
And I'm going to go with.
At Cherry Street Baptist Church where my dad's the pastor,
I've been able to watch that because my dad is the pastor
and we're close.
I've been able to watch his ministry when he got to
Cherry Street from 2008 to 2023.
In those years from 2008 to 2023, they've sent 24 households,
units, some single, some married, some with families,
but 24 different people to foreign mission fields.
How cool is that?
It has nothing to do with my dad.
God's just using that church to do that.
Who thinks that's so cool?
I think that's amazing.
I've watched from a distance how that every time someone
has been called and trained and sent,
both aspects of this happens.
People in the church are functioning well,
they're growing, maybe they've gotten saved,
they've been raised up in that church, they're trained.
And then when it's time for them to go,
the church must send them in the sense of releasing them.
This means that when they're sent, they're gonna miss them.
What do I mean?
Well, they're gonna miss them emotionally.
Who agrees that if someone would call someone out
of our church like that and they were to go
to the foreign field, we would miss them?
There would be that emotional like,
oh man, I wish they were still here.
And I've watched that happen at that church.
So there's that emotional like release
that you have to let these people go
because we're just gonna have to see each other again
in heaven and talk to each other on Zoom.
That's how it's gonna have to be, right?
You guys don't care.
That's kind of a joke.
Okay, so there's that emotional, they're gone,
but there's also the ministry part of it.
They are going to be there doing the ministry
that they were doing in that church anymore.
So if those people were here
and they were teaching a Sunday school class
and then God were to send them away, guess what we need?
We need a new teacher for the Sunday school class.
Does that make sense?
Because they're not gonna be ministering here anymore.
And so there's this releasing.
If they're leading some ministry,
a new ministry is needed because they've been released.
So you have that aspect of it,
but there's also when it's time for them to go,
the church must send them in the sense of supporting them.
They help them financially.
It takes money to get there.
They have to support them prayerfully.
If you feel like it takes money for them to get there,
trust me, it takes prayer for them to get there.
They promote their support among other like-minded churches
to get them to the field.
And when they do that, then verse five can happen.
What did the church in Aarhus do?
They released them, they sent them, verse five.
And when they were come at Salimus,
they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews,
and they had also John to their ministry.
You know what that means?
They didn't go by themselves,
they took somebody with them.
When they got there, they started with people
who at least believed the first half of the book.
They didn't start with the pagans,
they started with the Jews who at least believed
that the Old Testament's the word of God.
Isn't that a good strategy?
What a great strategy, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek.
So here you have the biblical basis.
Where do missionaries come from?
Look around.
Where do missionaries come from?
They come from local churches.
As local churches, when people to Jesus
and disciple those people and equip them in the church,
then we get to say to some people,
maybe you've heard this before, you're not dismissed,
you're sent.
And we say that to all of us as we're sent into our community,
but one day, I'm looking out for volunteers,
we're praying the God who has the Holy Spirit
would say, hey, separate unto me, this person,
that person for the work that I'm sending them to do.
Number five, here's the fifth part of the pattern.
Are you ready?
These efforts, this sending, it was supported
with prayer and giving from other local churches.
Who agrees, it would be very difficult for us
to support people with a living in a life
or a living in all these places,
just as a church, just as us.
So, I'll give you examples, they're all over the New Testament,
but Paul in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11 says in verse 7,
he's telling this church that he planted in Corinth.
Where was he sent from?
Antioch, right?
Are you guys with me?
So, this is a church that he established
as part of his mission, what did he do?
He went and reached people, he discipled them,
he trained up leadership, that's what happened.
In verse number seven, he tells this church
that he started on this mission, how it got there.
Verse seven, have I committed an offense
in abasing myself that ye might be exalted
because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
What is he saying?
Well, he says, verse eight, I robbed other churches,
taking wages of them to do you service.
Now, when he says robbed,
don't think something weird about
our upcoming missions conference.
Adam and Alia Cottrell are some missionaries
that are coming to our conference.
Adam is out of a church in Southern Ohio.
He got saved and baptized and discipled
in a Baptist church in Southern Ohio.
Alia, his wife, got saved and baptized and discipled
in a local church in New Testament
because somebody, Brother Dave Fawcett,
brought her on the bus.
Her parents didn't come.
Somebody went out on the bus route
and brought her to New Testament Baptist Church in Largo
in the 90s and 2000s and she got saved and discipled
and now she and Adam are living in Bangkok, Thailand,
telling people about Jesus.
Think that's awesome.
And so they're coming here and they need support
and we're gonna pray for them
and we're gonna try to support them financially,
but they're not coming and holding us up.
The idea of robbing here is he's saying
that these churches supported him
so that when he went to Corinth,
he didn't have to ask people for money.
He could live.
You see the pattern?
The missionary isn't trying to raise his support
among the lost first.
He's raising his support to do the ministry
among the saved at other churches.
This is so helpful for their ministry.
People already suspect that missionaries
have some ulterior motive to come and preach to them.
And by the way, there are some people
who call themselves missionaries and pastors
that they're whole, it's a get rich quick scheme.
They're charlatans, okay?
How do you know they're charlatans?
They don't say what this says.
But imagine if money got involved too soon, verse nine.
And when I was present with you
and wanted, I was charged,
meaning when I had a need,
I was chargeable to no man.
For that which was lacking to me,
the brethren which came from Macedonia,
not where you are somewhere else,
some other local church supplied.
And all things I've kept myself from being burdensome
unto you, and so will I keep myself.
This isn't the only passage that talks about this,
but the point is the biblical pattern is,
as God calls people out of these local churches,
other local churches and other believers
help give a little bit so that together we can
fund the effort of the missionary getting to the field.
And starting churches there,
not going there for one week or two week
or here we'll get a little project,
but going there, learning their language,
becoming like them, winning people that are there,
and then bringing up national leadership out of there
to lead those churches.
So that's what we see.
The goal is in number six,
the goal of church planning is autonomous,
which means self-governing churches.
The church planting missionaries,
reach people, disciple people, planted churches,
and developed leaders to lead those churches
that were planted.
Look at 1 Corinthians 4, verse 14,
this was our reading for today.
Paul says to this Corinthian church,
I write, not these things to shame you.
He's like, I'm correcting what you're doing in this letter,
but I'm not trying to shame you,
but as my beloved sons, I warn you.
For though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ,
you have not many fathers,
for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
What is he saying?
There's a lot of people willing to teach you about Jesus,
but I was there when you were born spiritually.
I was there when you first got saved.
You can trust me as a spiritual father.
And he says this,
Wherefore I beseech you be ye followers of me,
for this cause I have sent unto thee,
Timotheus, who is my beloved son, faithful in the Lord,
who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways,
which be in Christ.
You know what he's saying?
You need to continue to grow,
you need to continue to be developed,
you need to continue to be all that God wants you to be,
but I can't be there.
I want you to follow me to do what I do,
to believe what I believe,
and so because you need to do that,
I've trained up a leader.
God has provided a leader that I'm going to,
small word, four letters, we've used it a lot, send.
When he shows up, he's gonna remind you of me.
Right?
You do what you're supposed to do,
follow me,
so that what happens, verse 17,
as I teach,
what does he say?
Everywhere in every church,
because I've raised up somebody to send,
to help you continue,
I'm freed up to go do the mission somewhere else.
Who thinks that's cool?
That's the pattern.
The goal is that the churches that are planning
our self leading, self propagating,
self propagating, and self governing.
The missionary's goal is to work himself out of a job.
Why?
So that they can go on to another place,
or maybe eventually move on to heaven.
That's what happens.
So here's the last part of the pattern, number seven.
The missionary church planner in the early church
would report back to churches that supported their efforts
in letters and visits.
In just a couple weeks coming up,
Larry Lowry told me that he and Randy
are going on the mission journey of Paul.
They're gonna go where Paul went.
Not cool, it'd be a cool trip to go.
And maybe I should have said that.
Didn't get permission to say that,
but they're gonna go where Paul went
to all these different places
where he shared the gospel.
And you know what really like
a large part of the New Testament is?
It's a missionary sending letters
to the churches he started.
It's a missionary sending a report
of what God is doing in other places
where they are supporting him and working.
Let me give you an example.
In Philippians chapter four, verse 10.
You got it?
Philippians four, 10.
Here's what it says.
I'm gonna read this.
But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly
that now at the last your care of me has flourished again.
You know what he's saying?
Philippians, thanks for supporting me.
Thanks for caring for me.
Wearing you are also careful, but you lacked opportunity.
Not that I speak in respect of one another.
I'm not telling you this because I want more stuff.
For I've learned in what's overstated I am there
with to be content.
I know how both to be abased and I know how to abound
everywhere and all things I'm instructed both to be full
and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ with strength in me.
Meaning I can be empowered to get along
with whatever God provides,
but thank you for God providing through you.
Verse 14, notwithstanding ye have well done,
that ye did communicate or give or help with my affliction.
Now you Philippians know also that in the beginning
of the gospel when I've been departed from Macedonia,
no church communicated with me as concerning giving
or receiving, but ye only.
When I left, ye were my only supporting church.
For even in Thessalonica, you sent once and again
unto my necessity.
I remember what you did.
You gave, when I was starting that church in Thessalonica,
you didn't just give once, you kept giving.
You kept giving.
Now because I desire a gift.
Listen, I'm not telling you this so you keep doing it.
But I desire a fruit, now here's the cool part.
I desire a fruit that may abound to your account.
What is he saying?
You know who notices?
God notices.
And when you support people who are going to foreign fields
to plant churches and reach people for the gospel,
you had a part in that.
Does that make you excited?
We're gonna get to heaven and meet people
that the people we supported led to Christ.
How cool is it to be a grandparent,
to get to heaven to find out that the people
that I supported, supported people who supported people
who were there, who thinks that's cool?
And he says, what Paul's saying is
there's gonna be a fruit that's added to your account.
I want you to be a part of this.
I want you to get in on the ground floor
of what God is doing, verse 18.
But I have all in abound.
I am full having received from Epaphroditus
the things which were sent from you.
An odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable,
well pleasing to God.
Isn't God thankful when we give towards what he's trying
to do all over the world?
That's what it's saying.
Verse 19.
And if you're worried that God won't supply your need
because you're helping to supply other people's needs,
we all know this, verse 19.
But my God shall supply all your need.
According to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus,
now unto God and our Father be glory forever and ever.
Amen.
You know the whole point of this whole process
is that people would be saved and God would be glorified.
And he gets to use us to be a part of that.
Who thinks that's cool?
What an amazing, amazing, amazing thing.
So do you see the pattern?
Do you see the pattern?
We do the great commission here
as we disciple people here and people grow here.
God's going to call, I believe, people out of our church
and send them all over the world.
Who wants more people to go?
Who's volunteering?
Oh, I see that hand.
I see that hand.
God wants to do that.
But then we get to partner with what God's doing
in all these different places.
As people are getting sent out, we get to support them.
So how do we do that here at Trinity?
Here's a couple of things.
Number one, we do great commission ministry here.
We want to see people get saved.
In a couple weeks, you're going to see a married couple
who got saved because they were invited to our church
by their sister and brother-in-law who are being discipled.
And they've been listening online.
They watched a bunch of my preaching
and didn't fall asleep on the YouTube.
And they got saved and they came
and wanted to join the church.
And I got to lead the husband of the Lord.
How cool is that?
And they're going to get baptized
and we're going to continue to...
That's what's happening here.
That's an amazing thing.
So we're going to keep doing that here.
But I want you to know also that this has been the history
of this church.
Number two, we support great commission ministry nationally
and then internationally.
For instance, this mission's auction that's coming up,
we're going to support a project where that 108 people
are going to be sent for a short amount of time
to Paris, France during the Olympics next year.
They've already bought a bunch of the hotel rooms
that are needed.
We're going to print 500,000 tracks to hand out
during those weeks.
They're making a website where the gospel is going to be
presented in multiple languages.
And they're also going to broadcast that website,
push that website to every, through geofencing to every,
and we're praying that this can happen.
They're going to do that to every venue
that's happening at the Olympics.
People that we could not go to legally are coming to France
and we're going to get them the gospel.
How cool is that?
So as we do this mission's auction next week,
the money we're going to raise is going to go
to helping us buy those tracks, set up that website.
Who thinks that's cool?
I think that's amazing.
But we're not just doing missions projects around here.
We also support specifically church planting missionaries.
What I would call biblical missionaries.
Missionaries, right now we support 129 missionaries a month.
How cool, that's amazing.
Thank you church for your generosity.
129 people all over the world,
planting churches, reaching people, discipling people,
learning their language, speaking their language,
training up nationals to keep doing the same thing.
That's how the gospel gets out.
We have some that are coming
that we want to raise to do more.
So we're supporting Great Commission Ministry nationally
and internationally and we want to keep doing that.
Last year, the calendar year, the calendar year 2021,
we gave $217,000 to that effort.
Isn't that cool?
That's an amazing thing.
You can clap, that's good.
So we support Great Commission Ministry nationally
and internationally.
And number three, here's what we're praying for.
We're praying that God would send somebody out of our church.
Have you been praying for that?
We're praying that God would see fit to take somebody
out of our church to go where Christ is not named
and to do the same effort,
to do what's been done for them here somewhere else.
That's how we do missions.
We send people to do over there
what we're striving to do here.
What do you mean over there?
Wherever the Holy Spirit sends them.
How can you be a part of it?
You can pray and you can give
and maybe there's someone here
that God's working on your heart to go.
Maybe that's what's happening.
Would you bow your hands and close your eyes on me?